Arts & Entertainment
Photo courtesy of Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra
The young members of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Ben Simon, will perform an unusual program of Balkan and Sephardic folk music on March 9.
Balkan music (continued from page 26)
sounds that they may not have been familiar with was just fantastic,” she said. “They got the ornaments.” When she asked for volunteers to improvise, several hands flew up. At the concert, the orchestra will play one traditional Sephardic piece
and two Balkan-style songs composed by Flexer and arranged for the orchestra. Joining them are Flexer on her violin and three other musicians she’s bringing along. Gari Hegedus, her musical partner in Teslim, will play oud (a Persian stringed instrument and descendant of the lute), the circular frame drum and the mandocello. Miles Jay plays an unusual smaller
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sis (ALS). A video for “Stone’s Throw,” with photos by Serbian photographer Aleksandra Radonic, is displayed prominently on Flexer’s website. While poignant, the song also has a swirling, dancing feel. It feels like a true tribute to a woman who was known for both her music and her improv theater. Flexer and her cohorts are also planning to perform one song alone
What: “Mediterranean Journey,” a Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra concert featuring violin soloist Kaila Flexer and her folk-music quartet Where: Cubberley Theatre, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto When: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 9 Cost: Free Info: For more about PACO, go to pacomusic.org or call 650856-3848. For more about Kaila Flexer, go to kailaflexer.com.
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double bass that he built himself to fit into the upright compartments of airplanes. Percussionist Tobias Roberson plays the frame drum and the box drum, as well as the Egyptian riqq, a type of tambourine. Flexer’s two songs, “Stone’s Throw (For Carla)” and “Carla,” were written in honor of her friend Carla Zilbersmith, who died at age 47 of amyotrophic lateral sclero-
(they haven’t decided which one yet), and the orchestra will also play the folk-flavored “Trio Serenade” by Ernst von Dohnányi, and Felix Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia No. 2 in D Major. When Flexer’s not performing with Teslim, Simon’s San Francisco Chamber Orchestra or other groups, she’s often teaching music or composing. She also runs cultural events like the Bay Area festival Klezmer Mania, which she founded and produced for several years. Often, she’s just plain listening to music, often Balkan, Turkish, Greek or Sephardic. “It’s like you are what you eat. You compose what you listen to,” she said. “In composing, I really feel like a novelist whose characters tell her what’s going to happen,” she said. A melody — or a phrase, or a flutter of an idea — often just emerges on its own. “When I first started composing, if a melody wanted to go straight, I would send it left — I thwarted expectation in an attempt not to be predictable — my songs were a bit quirky and a bit self-conscious,” Flexer added later in an email. “Nowadays if a melody emerges and wants to go somewhere, I let it. ... We spend so much time receiving input these days. If one can create a bit of quiet, it’s amazing the music that is in the ether.” N
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