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by Sue Harrington
Published Tuesday March 12, 2012
For Marshall Turkin, March 14 will be the second premier of his new symphonic compositions this season: the ”Boca Fest Overture” by Lynn University’s Philharmonia during Festival of the Arts BOCA, following the premiere of the “Five Essays On One Theme” by the Boca Raton Symphonia in January.
Turkin is an active jazz musician performing with his Classic Jazz Ensemble at Lynn University’s Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center, at the Mizner Park Amphitheater and at the Levis Jewish Community Center. He conceived and hosts the classical chamber music series “Mostly Music” concerts at Lynn University as well as the sold-out Live at Lynn Jazz Series, has performed monthly jazz nights at the Boca Raton Museum of Art and at the Levis JCC, and this season will appear at the JCC also with Those Swingin’ Big Band series of concerts. Marshall Turkin is the founder and president emeritus of the Boca Raton Symphonia.
Notes from the composer about “Boca Fest Overture”
My “Boca Fest Overture” was composed to celebrate, and is dedicated to, all those upbeat, energetic and productive senior citizens I have been privileged to know in Florida. The score therefore is based mostly on uninhibited, joyous and energetic musical ideas. There is a plaintive slow middle section however, about reflections of past loves and bittersweet memories but then it is back to that much more confident opening theme. This time however a “senior moment” occurs causing some confusion until clarity returns with a closing uninhibited upbeat theme similar to the opening one. This builds to a Maestoso which includes references to Florida’s state song “Old Folks At Home” by Stephen Foster, (better known as “Swanee River”) and ends with a brief defiant brassy Presto.
About the composer
Marshall William Turkin is the former executive director of the Pittsburgh and Detroit Symphony orchestras, Chicago Symphony’s Ravinia Festival and the Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Festival. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music composition from Northwestern University. His music has been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra among others and published by Theodore Presser Company. He was also the founding manager and later general director of the Hawaii Opera Theater. Turkin is a former board member of the International Society for Performing Arts Administrators and of the League of American Orchestras, for which he chaired the Major Orchestra division. In recent years he has served as a music panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.