The Texarkana Symphony Orchestra's March 2 concert provides concertmasters a venue to show their talents not only with chosen instruments, but also at leading fellow musicians on the Perot Theatre stage.
Titled "The Four Seasons," the TSO's next concert features concertmasters Kiril Laskarov, Algis Staskevicius, Daniel Santelices and Diana Norwood leading the orchestra. It starts at 7:30 p.m. that Saturday with a 6:40 p.m. concert preview.
The concert title doesn't only refer to the famous Vivaldi composition.
"We're calling it 'The Four Seasons' because it uses two movements each from the Vivaldi 'Four Seasons' and 'Four Seasons of Buenos Aires' by the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla," said Andrew Clark, the TSO's executive director. "The idea behind it was that the four concertmasters would each lead one of those concertos, and therefore give the audience the taste of what this particular style of music, Baroque music being Vivaldi, how it would have been performed originally without a conductor."
Conductors, Clark explained, are more of a modern addition to the concert experience, arriving in the 19th century mainly because of the size increase in orchestras.
Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi is known well to music lovers. The TSO will perform two of the famous concertos. They'll play the third and fourth, which are "Autumn" and "Winter," respectively, which date from 1721.
"We think Vivaldi's inspiration may have been his time in Mantua," Clark said, calling them some of the first programmatic works. From the titles alone, they encourage listeners to consider the seasons when the concertos are performed.
About the Argentinian's compositions, Clark said Piazzolla also lived in the U.S. with his parents and won a contest to study in France with the famous teacher Nadia Boulanger.
"All of the great 20th century composers who had the means to and the ability to would go and study with Nadia in Paris," Clark said.
"Piazzolla, he created what was called a 'nuevo tango,' a new tango. He was a tango composer, really, a popular music composer, and his 'nuevo tango' incorporated elements of jazz and elements of classical music. And so this is how we come to the 'Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,'" Clark said. The TSO will perform "Spring" and "Summer," the opposite seasons.
"Each of these were written independently. They were never written to be performed together. At least that was not what Piazzolla set out for them to be done with," Clark said.
They're "tango-infused" but have classical elements, the director said. Also, they've been arranged by another composer to be performed. Because the parts were originally written for a solo and accompanying instruments, they need arrangements to be performed by a string orchestra.
The four TSO concertmasters will sit in the round on stage, sometimes standing to lead the orchestra during their particular section.
Laskarov is also associate concertmaster of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and plays with many regional orchestras. "A great soloist in his own right," Clark said. Staskevicius is the TSO's associate concertmaster and can be seen at many of its chamber concerts.
Santelices, assistant concertmaster, is one of the earliest musicians to perform with the TSO, Clark said, in addition to serving as the conductor of the youth orchestra in Shreveport. Norwood is the TSO's personnel manager, as well as an assistant concertmaster. "She's been with us quite a while," Clark said.
In addition to Vivaldi and Piazzolla, the TSO will perform Tchaikovsky.
"This is a full-length concert. We'll finish it up with Tchaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings,'" Clark said. That piece has four movements, the first of which is "Mozartian," he said. The TSO also performed the serenade in 2006 for the very first TSO concert.
"The idea behind this concert was to offer a little bit different flair. We don't do a lot of Baroque music concerts," Clark said.
The TSO has been working to find a new musical director and conductor. "We will have an exciting announcement regarding the next music director later this spring," Clark said.
(Tickets: $43, $33, $23. Student tickets and group discounts available. More info and ticket purchase: 903-792-4992 or PerotTheatre.com.)