Friday's performance by the Knights, a chamber orchestra that arrives on campus today, is not only dependent on its musicians to be focused and ready, but is also relying on a diplomatic miracle of sorts for everything to go smoothly.
Led by artistic director Eric Jacobsen, the orchestra is set to premiere its "Concerto for Santur and Violin," featuring Jacobsen's brother and violinist Colin Jacobsen and Iranian santur player Siamak Aghaei. The socially-conscious piece, commissioned by the Hopkins Center, centers on the santur, a Persian stringed instrument. Aghaei, however, faces difficulty obtaining a visa to travel to Hanover given the current political tension between the United States and Iran.
"As of this moment, we don't know if Siamak is going to make it," Colin Jacobsen said.
While the Knights work on finding alternatives, such as substituting Aghaei's part for another musician, the group's arrival is an exciting opportunity for community members to witness the orchestra's joyous performances and energetic presence.
Leading up to Friday's show, the Knights will visit classes including music professor Ted Levin's "Global Sounds."
"They're phenomenal teachers who interact well with students completely without pretension," Levin said.
Levin's students will attenda private performance by the Knights and host a discussion with group members. Levin said he hopes his students will go to the group's concert with the ability to "go more deeply into the music."
Students in music professor Steve Swayne's "Melody and Rhythm" course will be treated to a performance of Stravinsky's concerto in E Flat, a piece included in Friday's show.
"I played for the first movement of the Stravinsky in class and challenged [my students] to try to conduct the work," Swayne said. "It is filled with angular rhythms and unexpected accents. It's a challenging piece to play, so it will be a delight to hear it live Friday and, even more, to experience it so intimately on Wednesday."
In addition to class visits, the Knights will offer a "Green Room" performance and appear in several unannounced pop-up performances in various locations on campus.
Friday's show will be composed entirely of concerto grossi, interplays between a small group of soloists and the entire orchestra. The Knights will play their own "...the ground beneath our feet," an experimental corpse-style project written by several orchestra members. The dynamically different sections were sewn together, clashing and intertwining into one whole that should prove to be a fascinating listening experience, Colin Jacobsen said.
The piece "speaks to the friendship of the group and how it got started," he said. "We're the classical equivalent of a garage band."
The Knights had its beginnings in family living rooms, where friends played with friends for the joy of creating beautiful sound together. These classical jam sessions were the seed that gave rise to the Knights today.
Friday's concerto grossi composition "gives individuals of the group their chance to shine through," Jacobsen said.
