Diablo Symphony Family Concert “Fiddling with Mads Tolling”

The Diablo Symphony and Grammy-award-winning jazz violinist Mads Tolling team up for a family concert, “Fiddling with Mads Tolling,” on April 14 at 2:00 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts. Tolling will perform his violin concerto Begejstring  (Danish for “excitement”), commissioned in 2013 by the Oakland Symphony. Premiered in 2015, the “swing like you’ve never swung before” concerto for violin and orchestra dives into jazz, fiddle, and Latin styles with three movements, aptly titled “Possibilities,” “Understanding,” and “Jubilation.” The program also features two dances from Copland’s Rodeo, themes from Bruce Broughton’s score to the movie Silverado (conducted by Kathryn Crandell of the DSO’s horn section), and Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) by New York–based composer Missy Mazzoli. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Spheres evokes the orbits of celestial bodies, with paths that cross one another, as it takes listeners on an exciting cosmic journey. Several harmonicas help transform the orchestra into a makeshift hurdy-gurdy—a medieval stringed instrument with a sound similar to a bagpipe’s—that evokes the motion of the planets as they weave in and out of each other’s paths. Local young string players will also join the orchestra and Tolling in several of his fiddle tune arrangements.

Tickets are available at the Lesher Center for the Arts box office (925-943-7469; 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek) or online through the DSO’s website at https://www.diablosymphony.org. Discounts for youth and groups of 10+ seniors are available, and children 12 and under are admitted free of charge to all concerts. Tickets will also be available at the door.