“The Rose of Sonora” in Wichita
In April 2022 we’re moseying back to Wichita to work with the WSO and Maestro Daniel Hege on a Western-themed Masterworks program titled “The Rose of Sonora.” Back in November 2019, we collaborated on a seven-concert series with the WSO celebrating the magic of Mexico with our latest visual pieces: Pre~Columbia and Mágico. Six concerts were part of one of the country’s largest educational series, plus an evening family concert complete with a fiesta in the lobby.
For “The Rose of Sonora,” we’re presenting two contrasting visual pieces, Reflections of the Spirit and Rodeo!, that explore two aspects of the American West. Set to Barber’s hauntingly beautiful Adagio for Strings, the Reflections piece navigates the ruins at Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, Wupatki and the remarkable Chaco Canyon—ancient cliffside cities of the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) civilization whose remaining structures are often described as America’s pyramids.
Changing up the era and the pace is Rodeo!, which is choreographed to Copland’s synonymous work. The piece portrays the excitement of a lively small-town rodeo from behind the scenes with a backdrop of sweeping western landscapes and centuries of ranching heritage. Both pieces are testaments to people’s historical connections to the land and different traditional lifeways found in the American West.
“The Rose of Sonora” concert title comes from a newly written Western-themed musical work by composer George S. Clinton called The Rose of Sonora: A Violin Concerto in Five Scenes. The music was composed for WSO concertmaster Holly Mulcahy, who will be premiering it from the stage. Clinton took inspiration from the often-overlooked outlaw women of the Wild West who had colorful names like Rowdy Kate Lowe and Squirrel-Tooth Alice. John Williams’s The Cowboys Overture opens the program for what it sure to fun and insightful couple of concerts.
