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PITTSBURG —
Mix bluegrass music with the Southeast Kansas Symphony, toss in a champion flatpick guitarist and a Celtic fiddler, then have the concoction stirred by award-winning composer/arranger Steve W. Mauldin.
The result is “The Kansas Suite,” which will have its world premiere at 3 p.m. Sunday in Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium during the symphony’s first concert of the 2011-2012 season.
The composer will conduct the symphony in the piece, which features flatpick guitarist Tim May and his wife, Gretchen May-Priest, who plays Celtic fiddle.
“The Kansas Suite” was commissioned for the SEK Symphony, and written with May and May-Priest in mind.
Dr. Selim Giray, symphony artistic director, said the idea of commissioning came last fall after he and Terry Calloway, a bluegrass fan who’s president of the Friends of the SEK Symphony board, attended a concert by May and May-Priest in Pittsburg.
“We discussed the idea of featuring them with the symphony,” Giray said. “Then I realized that there is no composition that I know which was written specifically for the fiddle and pick guitar with a symphonic orchestra.”
The obvious idea was to have something written, and Caldwell suggested Steve Mauldin as the one to do it. The Friends of the SEK Symphony board approved the project.
“Terry and I went through high school together,” Mauldin said in a brief telephone interview during symphony rehearsals. “We performed together in a high school talent show.”
“Steve asked me to come up with some motifs,” May said. “I’d had some in my head, and he basically orchestrated them.”
“We got together several times in Nashville to work things out,” Mauldin said. “There are three movements in the piece. First is ‘The Tallgrass Prairie,’ the second is ‘Fields of Wheat’ and third is ‘The Kaw River’.”
“Bluegrass has a lot of Irish feeling, and the first and third movements are in 6/8 time, which the Irish would call a jig and you’d dance to it,” May said. “The middle part is a reel, which is also a dance.”
He said that “The Kansas Suite” should be accessible and enjoyable for a wide audience.
“The piece is basically bluegrass and Irish folk orchestrated in a classical way,” May said. “It should be pretty interesting.”
The collaboration was so successful that Mauldin said he hoped to work with May and May-Priest on future projects. May said that he would be open to that.
Mix bluegrass music with the Southeast Kansas Symphony, toss in a champion flatpick guitarist and a Celtic fiddler, then have the concoction stirred by award-winning composer/arranger Steve W. Mauldin.
The result is “The Kansas Suite,” which will have its world premiere at 3 p.m. Sunday in Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium during the symphony’s first concert of the 2011-2012 season.
The composer will conduct the symphony in the piece, which features flatpick guitarist Tim May and his wife, Gretchen May-Priest, who plays Celtic fiddle.
“The Kansas Suite” was commissioned for the SEK Symphony, and written with May and May-Priest in mind.
Dr. Selim Giray, symphony artistic director, said the idea of commissioning came last fall after he and Terry Calloway, a bluegrass fan who’s president of the Friends of the SEK Symphony board, attended a concert by May and May-Priest in Pittsburg.
“We discussed the idea of featuring them with the symphony,” Giray said. “Then I realized that there is no composition that I know which was written specifically for the fiddle and pick guitar with a symphonic orchestra.”
The obvious idea was to have something written, and Caldwell suggested Steve Mauldin as the one to do it. The Friends of the SEK Symphony board approved the project.
“Terry and I went through high school together,” Mauldin said in a brief telephone interview during symphony rehearsals. “We performed together in a high school talent show.”
“Steve asked me to come up with some motifs,” May said. “I’d had some in my head, and he basically orchestrated them.”
“We got together several times in Nashville to work things out,” Mauldin said. “There are three movements in the piece. First is ‘The Tallgrass Prairie,’ the second is ‘Fields of Wheat’ and third is ‘The Kaw River’.”
“Bluegrass has a lot of Irish feeling, and the first and third movements are in 6/8 time, which the Irish would call a jig and you’d dance to it,” May said. “The middle part is a reel, which is also a dance.”
He said that “The Kansas Suite” should be accessible and enjoyable for a wide audience.
“The piece is basically bluegrass and Irish folk orchestrated in a classical way,” May said. “It should be pretty interesting.”
The collaboration was so successful that Mauldin said he hoped to work with May and May-Priest on future projects. May said that he would be open to that.
He and his wife will also perform 20 minutes or so of solo bluegrass and Irish music during the concert, which will conclude with “The Kansas Suite.”
May began playing guitar and banjo at the age of 11, and by 13 was performing at the Bluegrass Festival of the United States in Louisville, Ky. In 2003, he toured with Patty Loveless, and in 2005, he recorded “Songs from the Long Leaf Pines” with Charlie Daniels. May was solo guitarist on Daniels’ “I’ll Fly Away,” which was nominated for a Best Country Instrumental Performance Grammy in 2005.
He and his wife perform regularly with their band, “Plaidgrass,” which features a high-energy instrumental mix of Celtic tunes and traditional bluegrass.
The first part of the concert will be devoted to a tribute to Mauldin. The composer grew up in Greenville, S.C., and toured with the Mauldin Family Singers. He earned a classical degree in music theory from Furman University. In 1981 he moved to Nashville and within weeks was hired to play bass for famed guitarist Chet Atkins. He has also worked with Pat Boone, Seals and Crofts, Tanya Tucker, Ray Price, the Drifters, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Martina McBride and the Gaither Vocal Band.
Mauldin was an orchestrator for the Broadway musical adaptation of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and has composed and recorded orchestra music for many films. He has 28 No. 1 singles to his credit. He was recognized for his arrangements on Dennis Scott’s tribute to Fred Rogers, titled “Songs from the Neighborhood,” which won a Grammy Award, and he has won the Southern Gospel Music Association’s Arranger Award of the Year three times.
Mauldin’s music for the first part of the concert will include “Twilight in the Forest,” a study piece written in honor of French composer Claude Debussy, and “My Life: A Journey of Musical Experiences,” a programmatic suite that he wrote as a graduate student at Belmont University.
“For some of this, it will be the first public performance since my master’s recital, making this a concert of firsts on many levels,” Mauldin said.
However, the symphony will also do “It Is Well With My Soul,” a commissioned work by Mauldin for an album of classic hymns.
“That has been performed at Carnegie Hall three times,” the composer said.
He’s looking forward to the premiere of “The Kansas Suite,” but noted that, no matter how widely it is performed in the future, this piece will always be linked with the Southeast Kansas Symphony.
“This isn’t just for one night,” Mauldin said. “The piece will be registered with the dedication to the Southeast Kansas Symphony. It will remain associated with the symphony for all time.”
Tickets for the performance, available at the door, will be $7 for adults and $5 for students 13 to 18. PSU students will be admitted free, along with children under 4 and children 5-12 who are accompanied by a ticket holder.
