Jeremy Van Hoy, the bass trombonist for the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and the band director at Colorado College, gets to do his thing Sunday afternoon in Packard Hall – and he’s all excited. “L’histoire du soldat,” a 1918 anti-war music-theatre piece by Igor Stravinsky, is his major offering.

Don’t let the avant-garde wrapping scare you away. This is a fascinating piece that should be one of the year’s artistic highlights.

With help from three CC funding sources, Van Hoy is producing a rarity here: a complete performance of this work (in English: “A Soldier’s Tale”) with seven professional musicians of his choosing, a narrator (novelist Steven Hayward from CC) and two actors to mime this odd battle of wits between a deserting soldier and the devil.

“We are doing this without a conductor, which combined with the tricky rhythmic writing by Stravinsky makes for many ensemble challenges,” said Van Hoy. “Every musician must know his or her part as well as the entire score in a very thorough fashion.”

Van Hoy opens the concert with four American works for his beloved bass trombone and piano (Susan Grace), but is clearly placing his bets on the Stravinsky.

“It has been decades since the complete version has been performed here. I hope to entertain the audience with an exciting and vigorous performance.”

–

3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, Packard Hall, 
5 W. Cache La Poudre St. Free

David Sckolnik, 
david.sckolnik@gazette.com

Jeremy Van Hoy COURTESY PHOTO