The San Antonio Philharmonic welcomes guest conductor Anthony Parnther and international guitarist JIJI for its “Classics VIII” program this Friday and Saturday at the Scottish Rite Hall.
Having conducted scores in films such as Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Creed III, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and in the series “The Mandalorian,” film conductor Anthony Parnther will bring his talent and passion for music to the stage for a two-night San Antonio Philharmonic performance of three works: Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Euryanthe, Harp of Nerves by contemporary composer Hilary Purrington and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90.
The program opens with Overture to Euryanthe, a piece that Parnther said “requires a high level of technical wizardry from every single person in the orchestra” and that “audiences tend to really love.”
“A symbiotic wall of sound” is how South Korean guitarist and composer Jiyeon Kim, professionally known as JIJI, described Harp of Nerves, the piece she will be performing this Friday and Saturday. When her longtime friend Hillary Purrington proposed writing a concerto for JIJI and her roommate, Purrington’s vision for JIJI was for her to imagine the guitar as a control mechanism for the nervous system of a spaceship.
“So the orchestra, you’re kind of controlling them with your sound,” said JIJI. “Everything that you do, the orchestra will kind of echo, or have this really, really, really kind of symbiotic relationship with what you do.”
Her unique performance with the philharmonic will be conducted by Parnther.
“You don’t often get to see the guitar as a solo instrument with the symphony orchestra,” said Parnther. “This is only the second time I’ve ever conducted a solo guitar in this sense.”
Following JIJI’s performance, the philharmonic will end the night with Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No.3, which Parnther considers one of the most difficult pieces to conduct. “It’s a piece that is just incredibly romantic and lush and full of expressivity and emotion, and it really takes the listener on a hard, foiled journey,” he said.
Parnther sees conducting as a service job — being in service to the composer, the score and to the audience. It’s different from the way Parnther approaches film scores, where his classical knowledge is something that he brings into the recording studio. “The thing that I take out of the recording environment into live performances is a sense of efficiency,” he said.
Parnther has two rules when it comes to putting on concerts. The first is that people have fun. The second is that people learn something that they didn’t know before.
“Our job as an orchestra really is to create beauty and share it with the community that we serve,” Parnther said.
He also hinted at the possibility of a small surprise at the end of the night involving a Star Wars title he has worked on as a conductor.
The two-night event takes place April 4-5 at the Scottish Rite Hall downtown. Tickets for both the Friday and Saturday performances are available on the San Antonio Philharmonic’s website.
