(upbeat music) - Kicking off a season of musical storytelling, "Music & Wonder" is the first in a series of concert pairs from the American West Symphony.

Joel Rosenberg music director is here to talk about the opening performance.

Hi, Joel, thanks so much for being here.

So you've got though a season of concert pairs.

- Thank you for having me.

Yes, the American West Symphony, This year we'll give five pairs of concerts, and this is our first pair.

We're going into December, January, March, and so on through the year.

But this concert will feature three composers, and I think it'll be very interesting for the audience and young people.

I'm going to explain a little bit about the Baroque Dances and Renaissance dances that Respighi was so interested in.

So he looked back to the Renaissance and he loved the lute.

So he looked at these beautiful pieces for the lute, which was the most popular instrument of the Renaissance.

And he orchestrated them and he put them into... (throat clears) Sorry, put them into four different sets of suites and we're playing the second suite.

The name of it is "Ancient Airs and Dances."

Very charming.

And he, with his skill of composing and learning from Rimsky-Korsakov, he was able to emulate the delicacy and liveliness and dance-like quality of those dances from the Renaissance.

- Oh, great.

I know that's one of your favorites too.

- I think They're marvelous pieces.

I've loved them for almost all my life.

Anyway, going forward, our next two composers actually were friends and they're joined geographically and musically through living in Vienna.

Mahler was conducting a theater orchestra for 10 years, and Franz Schmidt was the principal cellist.

And Mahler knew Schmidt wanted to be a composer, and he encouraged him, and they were good friends.

And Schmidt wrote an opera named "Notre Dame," and then there was an intermezzo.

And so this is the piece we're doing from that.

And then the Mahler symphonies, of course, you know, we're playing some of "The Mahler Fourth."

- Okay, wonderful.

It sounds like a great concert, and thank you so much for being here to tell us about it.

- Thank you, Mary.

Thank you.

- And if you'd like to know more about the opening concert at the American West Symphony, it will be "Music & Wonder," October 17th and 18th from 7:30 to 9:30 at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on 86th South 7th East.

Go to americanwestsymphony.com.

I'm Mary Dickson.

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