It’s not often that a vocalist gets a chance to do a twofer with a regional orchestra.
Even more rare if you’re a mezzo-soprano.
Unless the orchestra happens to be doing Mahler.
That’s mezzo territory.
For the first time in her 20-plus year career, mezzo Sasha Cooke is doing a twofer.
She will join José Luis Gomez and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra this weekend as the soloist for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, then returns next weekend to sing the composer’s “Rückert-Lieder” song cycle as part of the orchestra’s Masterworks series.
Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke is doing a Mahler twofer with Tucson Symphony Orchestra as part of the 2025 Tucson Desert Song Festival.
“I think that will be an interesting experiment for me ... to have this fabulous experience of Mahler Three, which is one of ... the most beloved symphonies, and then go and do songs, which are a bit more intimate but in a way even more Mahler than the symphonies,” Cooke said during a phone call from home in Houston just after New Year’s. “I’m really excited.”
Cooke’s appearance with the orchestra marks her third Tucson Desert Song Festival since she performed Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti” with Gomez and the orchestra in 2018. The song festival runs through Feb. 28 and returns April 1-19.
“I’ve had such great experiences (in Tucson) and it’s not only a really beautiful place, but it feels like it’s one of those towns where everybody knows everybody,” she said. “So when I’ve done master classes, there’s been a nice connection between city and arts organizations. It just feels like the two speak to each other really well.”
Cooke described Mahler Three as “one of those extraordinary pieces of art” that is “one of the most beloved symphonies.” Mahler spent between 1893 and 1896 writing the six-movement work that reflects his philosophical and spiritual curiosity about the human condition, the nature of our existence and the dots that connect the natural world and humanity.
The piece, like much of what Mahler did, revolutionized symphonic writing in his day. Instead of the traditional four or five movements, he wrote six, with the first taking up 35 minutes — the duration of most symphonies. He also called for a soloist, who you don’t hear until the fourth, and two choirs, including children, who come in on the fifth movement for around four minutes.
An all-female version of the TSO Chorus, under Director Marcela Molina, will share the role with choristers from Molina’s Tucson Girls Chorus.
“It’s a kind of a beautiful color, because they’re not only singing words, but Mahler uses the high-pitched voices ... as bells,” Gomez said. “So it’s like an image of heaven and they’re angels singing.”
Cooke said performing Mahler’s more intimate “Rückert-Lieder” songs is “in a way even more Mahler than the symphonies.”
“I think a lot of people think of Mahler with big sound, lots of brass, big orchestra. But I always think the most intimate is, for me, the most him,” said Cooke, who kicks off her busy year in Tucson before going to Norway days later to perform Mozart’s Requiem in February. She also has engagements in March with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic and is singing the role of Venus in Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” with Houston Grand Opera in April.
The TSO will perform “Mahler’s Third” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $14-$95.
Cooke and the orchestra will perform “Mahler and Schumann,” part of the orchestra’s Masterworks chamber series, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1 and 2 p.m. Feb. 2 at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive. Tickets are $43-$88.
For details and to purchase tickets, visit tucsonsymphony.org.
