News

Vancouver Chamber Music Series offers potpourri in opening concert

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

"Husband-wife flutists, Darren and Corrie Cook, paired up with Liu to perform Jennifer Grady’s gentle and lilting “Soaring.” Later in the program, the Cooks used the double-tonguing technique to create the sense of fluttering birds against a calm sky of light chords from Liu."

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VSO CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES CELEBRATES

ST. PATRICK’S DAY WITH A CELTIC CONCERT

SUNDAY, MARCH 18TH at 3PM

CELTIC MUSIC, PIPERS AND GREEN BEER ON TAP AT KIGGINS THEATRE

(Vancouver, WA) The Vancouver Symphony’s Chamber Music Series celebrates St. Patrick’s Day weekend at the historic Kiggins Theatre Sunday, March 18th at 3pm with a Celtic concert showcasing both classic and contemporary Irish music. A rich program of spirited dance tunes and cherished, audience-inclusive songs will be performed by members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and will be followed by young artists playing the Celtic drums and flute. Patrons will be greeted outside the theatre by members of the Fort Vancouver Pipe Band. Green beer, popcorn, snacks and wine will be available for purchase inside.

Featured performers include Corrie and Darren Cook on concert flutes and Irish flutes, Michael C. Liu on piano, Edward Sale on double bass, Igor Shakhman on clarinet, and soprano Barbara Choltco.

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Celtic, Irish-inspired music at Kiggins enliven St. Patrick’s weekend

MARCH 18TH, 2018, 8:54 PM

“So Darren went and ordered one and learned how to play it real quick,” Corrie Cook said.

Every instrument in the States was out of stock, Darren Cook said. He eventually found a flute-maker in Ireland who had been working at it for 30 years after building his first flute from a wagon wheel. He ordered it, then went to practicing.

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Oregon Repertory Singers: Risk and reward

OCTOBER 12, 2016

The Vancouver Symphony was very strong and, if we look past several individual blips and blats, a few essential solos were very well played. Military fife was very effectively rendered by flutist Darren Cook; cellist Dieter Ratzlaf simply and serenely played the blessedly beautiful Benediction melody, which is then repeated in the voices.

Audiences will sometimes sit through a large work awaiting one melody, one movement, one breathtaking “so beautiful it hurts” moment. (See Rachmaninoff Variations on a Theme by Paganini or Bernstein Chichester Psalms or Lauridsen Chansons de la Rose.) The Benedictus is one such moment in the Jenkins Missa, but other moments in this work surprisingly involved the percussion section. And a very fine percussion section it was – crisp, accurate and properly balanced.

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