Life Size Puppets Join The Phoenix Symphony

Basil Twist’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show to Open the Target World Music Festival

PHOENIX – As a follow-up to his highly praised performances of Petrushka during the Symphony’s 2008/09 Season, Basil Twist and his puppeteers will return to Phoenix to perform Falla’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show. These performances will mark the start of the second annual Target World Music Festival with support of the Target Corporation.

Master Peter’s Puppet Show is a puppet-opera devoted to the escapades of Don Quixote. Life size puppets interact within a show of shifting realities as Don Quixote’s rescue of a puppet maiden is told through the interplay of fluid scenery and Bunraku-style and rod puppets as The Phoenix Symphony performs Falla’s enchanting score. Puppets will interact on a large stage behind the Symphony, creating a tremendous visual spectacle. The evening is paired with Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas’s rhythmic Sensamayá as well as Gabriela Lena Frank’s stunning Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout depicting indigenous Peruvian sounds with authentic folk musicians, Tahuantinsuyo.

Concerts are at Symphony Hall January 14 at 7:30 p.m. with additional sponsorship from Mary and Michael Carey, January 16 at 8 p.m., and a shortened Coffee Concert on January 15 at 11 a.m.

Other highlights of The Phoenix Symphony’s 2009/10 Classics Season, sponsored by US Airways, include “Vivaldi/Piazzolla: Eight Seasons” (January 22 – 23), “Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf” (February 18 – 20), and “Gershwin Piano Concerto” (February 4 – 6).

Tickets can be purchased by calling the Phoenix Symphony Box Office at 602-495-1999 or by visiting www.phoenixsymphony.org.

Published on behalf of the Phoenix Symphony
About The Phoenix Symphony: The Phoenix Symphony has been proudly serving the citizens of the Phoenix metropolitan area and Arizona since 1947. What began as an occasional group of musicians performing a handful of concerts each year (in a city of fewer than 100,000 people) today serves more than 300,000 people annually, with almost 200 concerts and presentations throughout the greater Phoenix area and beyond.

Under the artistic leadership of Michael Christie as the Virginia G. Piper Music Director and administrative leadership of President Maryellen H. Gleason, the orchestra is overseen by the non-profit Phoenix Symphony Association under Board Chairman C.A. Howlett.

The Phoenix Symphony presents an annual season from September through the beginning of June, featuring full-length classical and pops concerts at Symphony Hall in downtown Phoenix, as well as concerts in Scottsdale, Mesa, Prescott and throughout central Arizona. The Symphony performs for more than 80,000 students and children, helping to introduce music to new generations through a variety of education and youth-engagement programs.  For more information, visit www.phoenixsymphony.org.

Technorati Tags: Arizona, Basil Twist, Falla’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show, Phoenix, Target Corporation, Target World Music Festival, The Phoenix Symphony