We’re feeling fantastic at the TC Philharmonic after two sold-out opening weekends — (No Sugarcoating cabaret and Beethoven 5 & American Four Seasons)! Now we’re gearing up for our biggest production of the first half of the season, happening October 19 at 3:00 PM in Corson Auditorium on the Interlochen campus.

Before discussing that program in detail, I want to highlight a very special series we are inaugurating on October 18th at 7:30 pm in the TC Philharmonic Center at the corner of S. Airport and Garfield Ave, in the Cherryland Mall. This new series is specially made for people who haven’t yet tried out an orchestra concert or maybe even classical music at all. It’s called Backstage Pass, and we’ve nicknamed it a series for the “classical curious!” With the super low ticket price of $10 (drink included!), in the course of a short 50-minute program, audience members will hear the full TC Phil up close and personal…barely a yard or two separating us from the audience, who will be able to have an adult beverage during the program in a relaxed atmosphere. Indeed, the orchestra and I will be in our everyday street clothes, so “informal” and “casual” are the keywords of the event.

An advantage to these Backstage Pass events is the chance to explain things about the orchestra and classical music that we don’t have time for in a regular concert. My goal is to show folks who think an orchestra concert might not be something for them, that music and the glorious sound of a live full orchestra is truly for everyone. As I write this article more than a week away, we only have a few seats left, so if you’re calling our Box Office for tickets and it’s already sold out, we will be holding two more of these later on in the season. For this first one, we planned this evening around the music of our big, huge, ginormous concert, featuring The Planets, which takes place the following day at 3:00 pm in Corson Auditorium. Indeed, that full concert on the 19th is gonna be a whopper!

This showstopping sonic highlight we are featuring on the 19th is one of the most extraordinary and amazingly influential pieces for orchestra. I am speaking of that sonic Technicolor showpiece for orchestra called The Planets, composed by English composer Gustav Holst. This one is a dazzling display of sounds and musical colors that is as fresh and modern-sounding today as when it was premiered in 1918!

I often use film music as a touchstone when describing or talking about music for a general audience since film music is a broadly shared cultural reference point that requires no special training in music to be understood. No discussion of The Planets would be complete without pointing out how it basically lays out the sound template for big cinema sound, particularly that of John Williams when composing for science fiction works like Star Wars or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The work itself has been used in more than 90 works of TV and cinema.

What makes it so great? Well, that’s always the difficulty in trying to describe a work of genius, and this piece certainly is. No other work by Holst has come remotely close to achieving a fraction of the success and worldwide popularity of The Planets. In pop music, they’d called him a “One Hit Wonder.” Nevertheless, with the large-sized orchestra, which is augmented by Jeffrey Cobb’s Northwestern Michigan College Chamber Singers, it’s going to be an unbelievable thing to hear live…if you can get a seat that is!

We stay with film for the other pieces on the program as we play three works featured in Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. We’ll perform J. Strauss Jr.’s Blue Danube Waltz, which was used as background to the visual ballet of various space stations and spaceships orbiting the Earth and the moon. To accompany the lonely journey of the Discovery spacecraft on its journey to Jupiter through the void of outer space, Kubrick chose the Adagio from Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian‘s Gayane ballet, which perfectly describes that solitary trek. Of course, we have to also play the iconic opening of Richard Strauss’s huge tone poem, Also Sprach Zarathustra, which became the music representing the monolith in the film.

We have another important element in the program which will feature the winner of our recent Youth Concerto Competition, Paloma Chaprnka. An amazing young talent, Paloma will play the first movement of Rodrigo’s famous guitar concerto, Concierto de Aranjuez. This is very gratifying and exciting to be able to present a young musician in concert with the orchestra!

With major big orchestral works on this blockbuster October 19th concert, a fun new informational series for orchestral newbies, the young winner of a concerto competition playing a delightful concerto for guitar and orchestra, the TC Phil is wrapping up October in grand and unprecedented style! Get your tickets for the brand new Backstage Pass event on the 18th and for Sunday, October 19th’s full concert The Planets + 2001: A Space Odyssey at TCPhil.org or call our Box Office 231-947-7120.

Kevin Rhodes is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Traverse City Philharmonic.