Holly Mulcahy. Photo by Todd Rosenberg Photography.
In Sunday’s (3/8) Wichita Eagle (Kansas), David Burke writes, “As Wichita Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Holly Mulcahy and composer Daniel Perttu began to collaborate on a violin concerto for her, she recalled a recording she had of an eagle’s cry she heard when she was in Wyoming. ‘That just struck me as so musical,’ she recalled. ‘And I was like, well, let’s use that idea and call it ‘Stealing from Birds’… Dan went with it, and together we went down a rabbit hole of different bird songs and what would work best with the violin …’ ‘Stealing from Birds’ makes its world premiere during the WSO concert next weekend, in a performance that also includes Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Wagner’s Flying Dutchman Overture…. ‘We’re discovering that this is going to be a gateway for people to discover birding, but it’s also going to be a gateway for people to discover the orchestra,’ Mulcahy added … Fifteen different birds—and a wolf—are represented in the concerto…. Rather than movements, ‘Stealing from Birds’ is divided into chapters to resemble a birding book, Perttu added…. Each chapter is preceded onstage with Perttu playing recordings of the true sounds of each bird featured.”
