Courage

The Greenville Symphony presents Artists Up Close with three concerts called Gratitude, Faith, and Courage. Formerly known as Spotlight Chamber Music, Artists Up Close features artists from the orchestra.

The music for the Symphony's third and final concert features music for piano chamber music performed by principal keyboardist Lisa Kiser and friends. Each selection relates to the idea of courage: from Ravel’s musical memorial to his friends lost in WWI Le Tombeau de Couperin (arranged for winds) and music by Joe Hisaishi written for the Studio Ghibli anime Howl’s Moving Castle to selections from the work Olivier Messiaen composed while interned at a German prisoner of war camp.

The program proudly features two works by South Carolina-based composers Jon Grier and Meira Warshauer. Warshauer’s joyous piece Yiddish Fantasy for Piano and String Quintet (and a tambourine), an arrangement of Yiddish Songs and Klezmer tunes, closes out the program.

Program:

Reprise From Spirited Away
Joe Hisaishi

Merry Go Round of Life Howl’s Moving Castle
Joe Hisaishi

Le Tombeau de Couperin I,II,III,IV
Maurice Ravel

String Quartet in G Minor, mvt. 1
Joe Hisaishi

Quatour pour la fin du temps, V: “Louange à l’Eternité de Jésus”
Oliver Messiaen

Overcoming
Jon Jeffrey Grier

Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, IV: Allegretto
Dimitri Shostakovich

Yiddish Fantasy for Piano and String Quintet
Meira Warshauer