February 3, 2023
This February, the VSO is proud to offer an interactive workshop focused on electric string techniques, led by electric violinist Tracy Silverman and electric violist Matt LaRocca. This workshop runs in parallel with Mr. Silverman’s Feb 4 performance with the VSO.
This workshop is designed for youth string players at the intermediate and advanced levels. Students will learn various genre-bending techniques to stretch the limits of what they thought was possible in string playing. Each participant will also learn how to electrify their instruments and will be provided with a electric pick-up and selected repertoire to take back to their home studios and performance ensembles.
This workshop is open to violinists, violists, cellists and bassists from any school or homeschool at no charge. Advance registration is required. Members of the general public are invited to join the audience; admission is free and tickets are not required for observers.
For more information or to register for the workshop, Education Coordinator Hannah Hansen: hannah@vso.org
About Tracy Silverman
Redefining the role of the violin in contemporary music, Tracy Silverman has contributed significantly to progressive string playing and to the repertoire and development of the 6-string electric violin. “Strings should participate organically in our popular musical culture or they will become old-fashioned and irrelevant. Strings must evolve or they may perish.”
For more information about Mr. Silverman, click here.
About Matt LaRocca
Matt LaRocca is a composer, performer and educator living in Burlington, VT. He is the Creative Chair of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, teaches theory and composition at the University of Vermont and is the music director of the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also the director of Music-COMP, an organization that teaches composition to hundreds of students throughout Vermont and the United States. Mr. LaRocca also works as an arranger for rock bands and has created orchestral arrangements for artists such as Guster (his work can be heard on their OMAGAH! album), Kat Wright, Haux and Henry Jamison.
For more information about Matt LaRocca, click here.
Tracy Silverman performs with the VSO on Feb. 5, 2023
The VSO’s final Music Director candidate, Andrew Crust, has chosen a rich and varied program that explores the full range of orchestral colors. The concert begins with Oiseaux bleus et sauvages by Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock, a shimmering symphonic aviary showcasing the flute. The first half concludes with the Vermont premiere of Ficciones (“Fictions”), a brand-new concerto inspired by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, and composed by Latin Grammy Award-winner Roberto Sierra. Ficciones is co-commissioned by the VSO and this performance features world-class electric violin virtuoso soloist Tracy Silverman. The program closes with one of the most passionate and profound works in the Romantic orchestral repertoire, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.
To buy tickets to this performance, click here.