Baltimore City Paper Online
Peabody Wind Ensemble
Music >> Classical
>> When
Wednesday, February 11th, 7:30pm
>> Location
Friedberg Concert Hall
Peabody Conservatory of Music
1 E. Mount Vernon Place
Baltimore
(410) 659-8124
>>Ticket
Info
$18, seniors $10, students $8
CPGO Critic's Choice
Composer David Gaines first heard
about Afghan Northern Alliance Gen. Ahmad Shah Massoud in the aftermath
of Sept. 11, 2001 -- two days after the guerrilla fighter and leader
was killed during a suicide bombing. Culling texts from Massoud's
speeches and press conferences, author Sebastian Jungers's writings on
Massoud, and information from Christophe de Ponfilly's documentary Massoud, The Afghan, Gaines' The Lion of Panjshir
for narrator and symphonic band paints a polyphonic portrait of the
Afghan hero called "the Lion of Panjshir" because his mujahedeen turned back the Soviet Red Army nine
times in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul. Conductor Harlan Parker
leads the Peabody Wind Ensemble through the world premiere of Gaines'
tribute tonight, featuring His Excellency Haron Amin, the current
ambassador of Afghanistan to Japan who once fought under Massoud, in
the role of narrator. -- Bret McCabe