By DAN ARMONAITIS
The Spartanburg Philharmonic is gearing up this week for a small ensemble concert that will be “locally sourced.”
As part of its popular Espresso series, the Philharmonic will present “Homegrown,” a one-hour showcase of works by classical composers past and present who have called the Hub City home, on Friday, Nov. 22 at the Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg.
“This is a really, really cool program,” said Peter B. Kay, who serves as general manager and composer-in-residence for the Spartanburg Philharmonic. “When we decided that we were going to do a concert of all-Spartanburg composers, we ended up with way more music than we could fit into the one-hour concert, so we had to choose, and basically we chose based on the instrumentation.”
The music for the concert will be performed in various configurations by the Philharmonic’s string quartet, along with flute, clarinet and piano.
“The music works together, but it’s also diverse,” Kay said. “I think it’s a really good grouping of music and a good representation of what Spartanburg has right now and what it’s done in the past, so we’re very excited about it.”
The concert will feature premieres of multiple works, including Kay’s own “a Boy and his Tiger,” which he wrote in 2012.
“It’s always been one of my favorites pieces I’ve ever done, but I’ve never had the opportunity to get it performed, partially because of the instrumentation and, in part, because it’s a challenging piece,” Kay said. “But it’s a fun piece. It’s basically about Calvin & Hobbes, the cartoon, but for rights purposes, I can’t call it that. So, I call it ‘a Boy and his Tiger,’ and everybody knows what that means.”
The piece is, in particular, based on “Calvin & Hobbes” creator Bill Watterson’s effort to establish a free-form, unbreakable layout for his famed comic strip.
Other works being premiered in the concert include “Cork” by Spartanburg High School music teacher John Moody, “Meadow Moan” by Carrie Leigh Page, who teaches music at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind, and “Battle at Byrjun” by 16-year-old Spartanburg High student Tristan Willcox.
Moody’s piece is intended to be a direct response to “Drip,” a work of his that won the Spartanburg-based Treefalls “Call for Scores” competition in 2015 and was featured in the Philharmonic’s Espresso no. 2 “French Roast” concert later that year.
“He wrote (‘Drip’) about coffee, and he joked on the stage that he would write a sequel about his favorite evening beverage, which was wine,” said Kay, who studied under Moody as a student at Spartanburg High School several years ago.
Page’s piece, meanwhile, was composed specifically for the “Homegrown” concert.
“It’s an avant-garde take on folk music is how I would describe it,” Kay said. “It has a certain amount of playfulness to it that has to do with the way the musicians perform it on the stage. I don’t want to give too much away, but they do some special stuff on stage that I think the audience will really enjoy.”
Willcox, too, composed his piece especially for Friday’s concert.
“He’s interested right now in doing flm scores, which is obviously a more lucrative field if you can break into it but it’s also just as challenging as classical music,” Kay said. “So, if you listen to his piece on Friday, you’ll hear that he’s headed in that direction. It’s a very cinematic piece.”
While Willcox, at 16, is the youngest composer featured in the “Homegrown” concert, he’s not the only up-and-comer on the bill.
Spartanburg native Holt McCarley, now a resident of Atlanta, will have his piece, “A vessel of light in a dark sea,” which is dedicated to his late grandfather James Robert McCarley, performed during the concert.
“Holt is in his 20s, so he’s very young too but he has a lot of potential,” Kay said. “To be able to provide an opportunity like this for these young guys to help out their careers right off the bat, I think is going to be really strong for them.”
The concert will also feature a contemporary piece by Converse College professor Scott Robbins, whose “Soul Kiss Deluxe” is partially inspired by 1970s soul music.
Robbins “plays guitar and started out as a drummer, so he comes from a very different background — more of a rock background — and it shows in his music for sure,” Kay said.
In addition to the modern composers, “Homegrown” will also feature vintage works by a pair of renowned classical musicians who spent time in Spartanburg during the early to mid-20th century.
Spanish-born conductor, teacher and composer Pedro Sanjuán arrived in the Hub City in 1942 and became professor of composition at Converse College and served as music director of what is now known as the Spartanburg Philharmonic from 1945 to 1952.
His “Una Leyenda,” which was actually written two decades before he came to Spartanburg, will be played during Friday’s concert as will selections from “The Tempest” by Ernst Bacon.
Bacon, who was hailed by distinguished composer and music critic Virgil Thomson as “one of America’s best composers,” was a Chicago native who became dean of the School of Music and professor of piano at Converse College and conducted the now-Spartanburg Philharmonic from 1938 to 1945.
Kay said “Homegrown” will also include a classical guitar performance by Wofford College professor Jhon Akers.
“This concert is a celebration of a long history of music in Spartanburg,” said Kay, who then brought up the series of signposts that are scattered throughout downtown in recognition of famous musicians from the city. “I think it pairs nicely with the Music Trail, which, for the most part, is a different style of music, but is another way that we celebrate music in Spartanburg.”