For some fans, Alexander "Sasha" Lipay's solo debut with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra next weekend has been a long time coming.
It's a chance to see the wavy-haired, Russian-born principal flutist step out from the orchestra and take center stage to perform one of the flute repertoire's finest baroque showpieces, Vivaldi's "The Goldfinch" concerto.
"It's got a really beautiful second movement, just really beautiful melodies," the 27-year-old Lipay said during an interview at the Tucson Symphony Center on Monday "It's a 10-minute piece, so nobody's going to get bored; they're going to enjoy every second of it."
The Vivaldi is one of two solo works Lipay will perform in the "Brahms and Flute Fantasy" concerts next week. The other is Bizet's "Carmen" Fantasy arranged by François Borne for orchestra and flute. Lipay has played it before in Bizet's original piano-flute arrangement, but he has never performed the Vivaldi, he said.
Lipay spent about a year working on the pieces, which he will perform in a bruising weekend that includes the special concert on Dec. 5 with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. In addition to his solo turn, Lipay will join the orchestra for the second-half Brahms Second Symphony.
"It's going to be a busy week," he allowed, in near-perfect Russian-accented English. "Personally, I'm looking forward to playing that piece, because I always enjoy playing Brahms symphonies."
Although this is his first solo turn with the orchestra, Lipay has performed at least one solo concert every year since he arrived in Tucson fresh from graduate school at the University of Southern California in 2006.
He also has teamed up with his TSO colleagues for small ensemble performances, including with TSO violinist Anna Gendler and her husband, pianist Alexander "Sasha" Tentser of Pima Community College, for several well-received performances.
Lipay came to the United States as a boy with his family - Dad is a sound engineer with the Seattle Symphony; Mom is a computer programmer - and became a citizen in 2000. He earned double bachelor's degrees in piano and flute performance at the University of California-Santa Barbara before earning his master's in flute at the University of Southern California.
He said he aspires one day to become a soloist like James Galway, with whom he studied in Switzerland during the summer of 2003.
"I really like playing the solo stuff as well as being in the orchestra. I want to do both," he said.
Next spring he'll perform Saverio Mercadante's Flute Concerto in E minor with the Seattle Symphony at the invitation of Seattle conductor Gerard Schwarz. It will be his second solo appearance with Seattle; the first was in 2007.
