The Prince George Symphony Orchestra’s (PGSO) second performance of the season, Tabla, is coming up on Sunday.
The PGSO’s Music Director, Michael Hall, says the performance is a blend of Indian and European classical music.
The Orchestra has brought in Shawn Mativetsky, who they say is considered “one of Canada’s leading ambassadors of the tabla.”
The tabla is a pair of hand drums that is very common in Indian and Eastern traditional and classical music.
“The way the music from the East is composed, put against the Western orchestra and the way Western instruments work is a really wonderful combination,” Hall explained to My PG Now.
“This is a piece I’ve wanted to program for some time,” he continued. “It’s an incredible fusion of musical traditions that’s really quite unique. We love to challenge ourselves as musicians, and working with artists from different artistic backgrounds than our own is always such a treat.”
“It is very important for me in general that people know this instrument,” Mativetsky said. “Many people do know this instrument already, for them it will be a way to see the tabla in a new setting.”
“Typically in Indian classical music, tabla is an accompanying instrument… when we play a tabla solo, the solo is accompanied by a looping melody. That is what is happening in this piece – if I am improvising, who is keeping time? The roles are reversed, the melody keeps the time,” Mativetsky explained.
Mativetsky said he was 17 years old when he first heard the tabla played, and has been enamored by it ever since.
The PGSO’s performance is being held on Sunday (November 19) at 2:00 in the afternoon.
It features three selections, Mozart’s Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio, Beethoven’s 1st, and Concerto for Tabla and Orchestra by Canadian Dinuk Wijeratne.
You can find out more here.