1. Festival Celebration Music (2000)

RUSSA NOVA PUBLISHERS (ASCAP)

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Commission and premiered by the Las Vegas Music Festival

Orchestra, George Stelluto, conductor

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"Festival Celebration Music" was commissioned by the 2000 Las Vegas Music Festival. This piece is scored for full orchestral brass and percussion. The music has a celebratory and energetic sound, written in a distinctive Slavic style. It depicts a celebration gathering at the old Slavic Country Fair (Yármarka) which features handmade crafts, music, foods, and one of the most important element of it a "skomorokhs" , which is an East Slavic harlequins, i.e. actors, who could also sing, dance, play musical instruments and compose most of the scores for their oral/musical and dramatic performances. Dressed in masks and costumes, they entertained to the sounds of these traditional instruments: domra, balalaika, gudok, bagpipes and tambourine. An energetic theme after a short introduction depicts the performance of the "skomorokhs" in which they engaging with the spectators to draw them into their play. A short transition brings us to a Tuba Solo with a Tambourine accompaniment. This theme represents a dance of the circus bear, one of the very old entertainment tradition. A big brown bear trained to move rhythmically to music. This part of the act always gets a large crowd. The celebration at the fair is getting more and more exciting: acrobats, games, beautiful costumes, and dainties continue building towards the last section of the Fanfare, a Hymn which magnifies the beautiful countryside with its colorful landscapes and deep expansive lakes.