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Courtesy photo

Maestro Robert Moody has taken over the reins as music director for the Arizona Musicfest Festival Orchestra. Moody brings a wealth of talent and experience to the post.
(Click picture for full size image)

Courtesy photo

Jerry Kirkbride, principal clarinetest for the Festival Orchestra, will be a featured soloist during the “Gershwin & All that Jazz” performance.
(Click picture for full size image)

Maestro Moody makes for melodious Musicfest

NORTH VALLEY – Arizona Musicfest is considered by many to be the preeminent musical adventure of the winter season in the Southwest.

The month‑long extravaganza, beginning in early February and ending March 4, highlights music from all genres including jazz, blues, pop and classical

Before the final note faded culminating the 2006 Musicfest, organizers were looking ahead to an even bigger and better event in 2007.

The addition of Maestro Robert Moody most certainly heightened anticipation for the 16th annual Musicfest.

Moody assumed the reigns as musical director and conductor of the Festival Orchestra, an extraordinary group of musicians from across the country. This year’s orchestra added musicians from the Chicago, Oregon, Phoenix and Winston‑Salem, N.C. symphonies giving the ensemble added depth.

“Each of the four Festival Orchestra performances will be truly remarkable,” explains Roberta Pappas, managing director of Arizona Musicfest. “Moody’s musicianship is extraordinary; his programming innovative and challenging, offering something special at each concert.

“The orchestra’s quality is superb. Several outstanding new members will join the fine musicians audiences have come to enjoy over the past years. Talented guest vocalists and soloists will enhance each concert.”

Maestro Moody brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with him having recently served as resident conductor with the Phoenix Orchestra and choirmaster for the Phoenix Symphony Chorus. He is currently music director for the Winston‑Salem Symphony and has conducted the Anchorage, El Paso, New World, San Francisco and Oregon symphonies, as well as return engagements with the symphony orchestras of Annapolis, Detroit, Ft. Worth and Houston.

An impressive resume indeed.

The festival thus far has been a rousing success, according to chairman Chris Warsaw.

“Audiences have been audibly delighted. Ovations and ‘bravos’ have greeted every concert,” Warsaw says. “Audience members have actually stopped me and other Arizona Musicfest committee members to congratulate and thank us for presenting such talent. Every year we think, ‘How can we possibly top this concert next year?’ And yet, every year we do it. We’re as amazed and pleased as the audience.”

Moody will hit the ground running Feb. 20 with his symphony debut “Opening Night; Welcome Maestro Moody!” a challenging program spotlighting Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite,” Vaughan Williams’ “Serenade to Music,” and Beethoven’s “Seventh Symphony.”

That’s only the first night.

On Feb. 22, “Gershwin & All that Jazz” with The Festival Orchestra will be the evening’s program, featuring the music of Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill and Russell Peck as well as solos from clarinetist Jerry Kirkbride.

And of course, there’s more.

Perhaps the most meaningful performance for Moody and the orchestra will be “Southern Nights,” which he calls his “gift from his southern roots.”

“I'm a product of the South,” Moody says. “Born and raised in South Carolina. So I grew up in the world of the country church hymn, grits, fried catfish–heck, fried everything–and a real belief in a kind and aggressively friendly culture.

“But of course, underneath the smiling faces, southerners struggle with the same issues as anyone in the rest of the country,” Moody says. “Perfect families that turn out to be not so perfect, relationship struggles, dealing with grief and loss and on and on.

“‘Knoxville, Summer 1915’ captures the above in a way that my words never could,” he explains. “The text is haunting, the musical setting of Samuel Barber could not be more perfect, and our soprano Camille Tierney will deliver this piece with the most wonderful of voices.

“‘Ain’t it a Pretty Night’ from the opera “Susanna” is in a similar vein to the Barber (piece),” Moody says.

“A young woman in the South finds the town turn against her for her ‘sinful’ ways. When the town minister comes to counsel her, to ‘turn’ her, he instead molests her. It is our southern ‘Scarlet Letter’ of sorts. And yet this aria is so hopeful.”

Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” is the final piece.

“It’s really set in the mid‑Appalachians, but I can’t help think of my own Smoky Mountains in upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina when I work on this piece,” Moody says.

“This work is truly one of the most important pieces of music in American repertory. The solemn hymnody, the fiddle‑like square dance quotes, the angular and arhythmic chaos all give way finally to ‘tis the gift to be simple.’ Amazing piece.”

The final Musicfest orchestra performance finds world‑renowned violinist Nadja Salerno‑Sonnenberg performing Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto” on Feb. 25.

The youngest winner of the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition in 1981, Salerno‑Sonnenberg has been in the media spotlight ever since. A musician of this caliber is a first for Musicfest and the entire North Valley, organizers say.

Salerno‑Sonnenberg will also appear Feb. 27 in recital with Anne‑Marie McDermott on piano.

For more information visit azmusicfest.org.

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