23 flutists will hit the stage with Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra

A decade ago, Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra had 10 harpists on stage to perform Handel’s Concerto for Harp No. 6.

This weekend, it will host 23 flutists, nine of whom will solo with the orchestra.

Seems like a fairly light lift in comparison.

“I don’t know where I’m gonna put all these flute players,” joked SASO Music Director Linus Lerner. “At least the flute is not as big as the harp.”

The flutists, members of the Tucson Flute Club, will perform during the intermissions of the orchestra’s two performances this weekend of “Flying High with Holland, Stravinsky, Gershwin and talented youth,” featuring the winner of the orchestra’s 2022 Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition.

Nine of those flutists will join the orchestra during the concert to perform Anthony Holland’s “Sun Flight” Concerto for Flute Ensemble and Orchestra. Each will have their own part to perform, which is different from the 2012 concert featuring the University of Arizona Harp Fusion. All of the harpists played in unison on Handel’s Concerto for Harp No. 6.

This weekend’s program also includes Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” featuring Italian pianist Andrea Trovato; Stravinsky’s electric “Firebird Suite”; and a movement from Gershwin’s Piano Concerto, featuring 15-year-old pianist Nina Yu, winner of the 2022 Vanek contest.

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Lerner said teaming up with the Tucson Flute Club continues the orchestra’s mission of collaborating with Tucson arts organizations, which has included working with area high school choirs in 2019 on “Carmina Burana.”

SASO will perform the concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 12, at DesertView Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. Clubhouse Drive in SaddleBrooke; and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 13, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 7575 N. Paseo del Norte, on the northwest side. Tickets for SaddleBrooke are $30 through tickets.saddlebrooketwo.com; it’s $25, free for students 17 and younger for the Tucson concert through sasomusic.org.

‘TSO Up Close’ series continues

Tucson Symphony Orchestra picks up its intimate small-ensemble “TSO Up Close” series this weekend, shining the spotlight on a sextet of string players and a wind quintet.

“Tchaikovsky and Nielsen” features the wind quintet — Zachary Warren on flute, oboist Bobby Nunes, Dario Brignoli on clarinet, bassoonist Benjamin Yingst and Kathleen Demlow on horn — performing Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet. The melody for the Danish composer’s three-movement piece, which he wrote in 1922, is based on one of his spiritual songs, according to program notes Nielsen wrote for an early performance of the work.

In the concert’s second half, TSO Concertmaster Lauren Roth will lead a string sextet with colleagues Michelle Abraham Kantor on violin, violists Ann Weaver and Candice Amato, and cellists Anne Gratz and Robert Chamberlain performing Tchaikovsky’s tuneful Sextet in D minor “Souvenir de Florence.”

The concert, which lasts about an hour, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 12, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 13, at Tucson Symphony Center, 2175 N. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $16 through tucsonsymphony.org