NATCHITOCHES – The Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony will present its Halloween Pops Concert on Tuesday, Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Dr. Douglas Bakenhus is the musical director. Syll-Young Olson is the assistant director and Sofiko Tchetchelashvili is the instructor.
Tickets are $16.50 each and are available at https://nnssla.org/ticket-sales.
The concert will feature Northwestern State faculty Marcy McKee, Terrie Sanders, Robert Cardwell, Andrej Kurti, Adam Philley and Greg Wascoe of the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts.
The program will include “The Cowboys Overture” by John Williams “March to the Scaffold” from “Symphonie Fantastique” by Hector Berlioz, the “Commendatore Scene” from “Don Giovanni” by W.A. Mozart featuring Philley as Il Commendatore, Cardwell as Don Giovanni and Wascoe as Leporello and “Danse Bacchanale” from “Samson and Dalila” by Camille St. Saëns.
` After intermission the orchestra will play “Overture for a Fantasized Adventure” by NSU student Turner Sugg “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz” with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg featuring Sanders, Highlights from “WICKED” by Stephen Schwartz and arranged by Ted Ricketts which includes “No One Mourns the Wicked,” “The Wizard And I,” “Dancing Through Life,” “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.” They will also perform the title song from “Kiss of the Spider Woman” with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb and featuring McKee, and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Charlie Daniels and arranged by Laura Schumann featuring Kurti on fiddle.
Sugg said “Overture to a Fantasized Adventure” is special to him. The work is based off a Dungeons and Dragons campaign he is part of with some close friends.
“This past spring, I had started getting really interested in movie soundtracks and how they were written, especially the works of John Powell and John Williams,” said Sugg, a sophomore music education major from Henderson, Texas. “I decided I wanted to try to write a piece in the style of a movie score, and the setting of this ‘fantasized adventure’ seemed fitting. Now, I’ve written pieces in the past, but never for an orchestra, so this was out of my comfort zone.”
Sugg said he wanted to write a unique theme for each of the four main characters, as well as the party as a whole.
“To be honest, once I started, the music came pretty easily,” he said “It helped that I had become ‘attached’ to these characters in a sense, so I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to depict with each of their themes. I also had a close friend of mine, Garrett Carrell, act as a second set of ears for me throughout the entire process. He is also in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign with me and was a huge help in making sure my music portrayed the image I wanted.”
Sugg finished the piece in early July and published the mock-up of it on YouTube.
“I showed it to Dr. Bakenhus about a month ago, just to get his feedback, and to my surprise, he told me he wanted to perform it in this concert, and here we are,” said Sugg, who studies with Bakenhus. “I’m beyond excited to have the opportunity to share my music with others, and hopefully immerse them and bring them on this 11-minute adventure.”
Sugg has also been given the opportunity to take the podium and rehearse his work with the orchestra.
“As a music education major, this gives me the opportunity to work one on one with a large ensemble and begin learning and applying rehearsal techniques that I’ll be able to use for the rest of my career,” said Sugg, who performs in the orchestra and the NSU Wind Symphony. He is a drum major in the Spirit of Northwestern Marching Band.
The 2023-24 season, “Symphony in the Key of Love,” will honor the late arts philanthropist and former Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Society co-founder and former president Jim Bob Key. Each concert will have selections dedicated to Key. After serving as the second president of the Symphony Society in 1968-1969, Key was a lifetime member of its board of directors. He served on the National Council of the Metropolitan Opera and the regional boards of the Shreveport Symphony and Shreveport Opera. He was a member of the Louisiana State Arts Council, which founded the Louisiana Outdoor Drama Association amphitheater located at Grand Ecore. He was inducted in the NSU Creative and Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2014 and selected a Natchitoches Treasure in 2015.
