11th Tucson Desert Song Fest includes big names, big works

The first leg of the festival runs Jan. 18-Feb. 19; it resumes March 24-April 6.

“If Jack (Forsythe, the festival founder) or someone else ever said that it would be this big at this point, nobody would have believed it,” said Song Festival Executive Director George Hanson.

Among the artists on this year’s roster is Grammy winner and Metropolitan Opera regular Angel Blue, whose recital with the Arizona Opera on April 1 prompted Hanson and Song Festival Board President Jeanette Segel to extend the festival beyond February. Blue was only available in April, so Hanson and Segel decided it was worth adding the spring leg to accommodate her.

In addition to Blue’s event, the second leg includes True Concord Voices & Orchestra performing Rachmaninoff’s “Vespers” March 24-26 and Tucson Symphony Orchestra tackling Mahler’s behemoth “Resurrection” Symphony March 31 and April 2.

Hanson said one of the festival’s highlights will come on the opening weekend, when the TSO, under the baton of José Luis Gomez, performs Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony “Choral” with the TSO Chorus and four guest soloists.

Beethoven’s Ninth, with its breathtaking “Ode to Joy” finale, was a catalyst for Forsythe’s idea to launch the Tucson Desert Song Festival, said Hanson, who spent 19 years at the TSO podium before leaving in 2015; Gomez replaced him in 2016.

Hanson said that Forsythe, who died in 2020, had come up to him after the orchestra performed the Ninth in 2009 and commended him on the performance. He then suggested it would have been even more spectacular with world-class vocalists on the stage, the kind of vocalists whose fees would outpace the orchestra’s pocketbook.

Forsythe suggested that a song festival involving a handful of Tucson arts organizations including the symphony, opera and university, could raise the money to bring in world-class, up-and-coming vocalists who would shine a spotlight on Tucson as a vocal arts destination.

Forsythe and Cecile Follansbee, a longtime Tucson arts advocate, put the pieces together and launched the inaugural festival in 2013.

“This is the first time the Ninth has been fully incorporated into the festival,” Hanson said, which in some ways brings Forsythe’s vision full circle. “We have retirees and others coming here from areas with major symphonies like Chicago, and they bring high expectations to our little pueblo. The song festival is helping all of our arts organizations rise to that level of expectation.”

The festival’s four world premieres also are destined to be highlights.

After postponing it for a year, courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic, True Concord Voices & Orchestra with soprano Susanna Phillips will finally perform the world premiere of Jocelyn Hagen‘s “Here I Am,” celebrating women’s voices. Hagen and her husband, Timothy Takach, are True Concord’s inaugural composers in residence. Performances are Jan. 27-29; trueconcord.org

Baritone Justin Austin will perform the world premiere of opera composer Ricky Ian Gordon’s new song cycle, commissioned by the Song Festival as part of the Wesley Green Composer Project. Feb. 9; tucsonsongfest.org

Ballet Tucson will present the premiere of Chieko Imada’s new work based on the legend of Japan’s Queen Himiko. Feb. 17-19; ballettucson.org

The Tucson Guitar Society orchestra will premiere Belarus-born classical guitarist and composer Olga Amelkina-Vera’s “Pulling Down the Clouds,” a song cycle the society commissioned that is set to the texts of Tohono O’odham poet Ofelia Zepeda. April 2; tucsonguitarsociety.org

Tickets for song festival events are available through the participating arts organizations. Details: tucsonsongfest.org