Music to Match Our Mountains
Saturday, March 21 at 7PM
Private home
(address provided upon ticket purchase)
Featuring the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra Woodwind Quintet:
Laura Koenig, flute
Naomi Stamoolis, oboe
Karl Pasch, clarinet
Kyle Noonan, bassoon
Darrel Kincade, horn
Party like it’s 1962!
Re-live and “re-hear” Anchorage history as we recreate a chamber music program from the 1962 festival. Hear snippets of archival audio from the 1962 performance, and enjoy an eclectic mix of Haydn, Rossini, Carl Nielsen and others, performed live by Anchorage’s finest wind players.
Concertgoers are invited to dress, vibe, and party like it’s June, 1962, when the Space Needle and Spider-Man were only days old, but the Cuban Missile Crises hadn’t yet shattered nerves.
Known for our historically informed concerts on baroque period instruments, AFM now applies this depth of research and attention to detail to mid-century modern! Not only will you hear audio of the fabulous Westwood Wind Quintet from 1962, but you will learn how performance practice has evolved over the last sixty years. Even the instruments themselves have undergone visually subtle, but audibly significant changes.
The evening will be capped by an elegant and authentic reception recalling a time when Jello and fondu transcended the savory and sweet divide.
What’s so special about 1962?
AFM was recognized internationally in the summer 1962 by Musical America magazine. In the Festival’s 1962 commemorative booklet, AFM founder Mary Hale describes the festival’s commitment to offering enrichment opportunities to Alaskan musicians, while expanding to “quite another important purpose–that of creating a new, fresh image of our country and state beyond our borders.”
The 1962 Festival featured Alaska Native art and music, world folk music, a program for young people, cutting edge electronic music, and works by living composers (such as Aaron Copland), alongside Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn’s towering The Seasons performed by large chorus and orchestra. Additionally, the June 16, 1962 concert by the Westwood Wind Quintet premiered AFM’s first commissioned piece by an Alaskan composer.
This event is made possible, in part, through the generous support of the Atwood Foundation.
