Tabla Player Shawn Mativetsky demonstrates the tabla 

By Tommy Osborne

Symphony Orchestra

PGSO brings fusion of Western and International music to newest show

Nov 17, 2023 | 4:32 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Prince George Symphony Orchestra’s (PGSO) second main stage performance is coming up on Sunday, November 19, and this performance features a fusion of Indian and Western music.

Juno award winning composer Dinuk Wijeratne’s Concerto for tabla and orchestra will be performed, and the PGSO explains the unique sound of the tabla makes it a must see performance.

“What really strikes me is the interesting sound of the tabla, this to me makes the piece so unique, this instrument that’s nothing like a Western instrument. It’s the quality of that instrument, I think that makes it very exciting and interesting for a listener to experience this piece,” said the PGSO’s Music Director Michael Hall.

Timberwolves Basketball

Milan Pasquale making a name for himself on the court at UNBC

13h ago

Rustad blasts Eby

"It's disgusting:" John Rustad blasts Premier David Eby

15h ago

Canada Post Strike

Canada Post temporarily laying off striking workers

15h ago

The performance will actually start with traditional western music, as Beethoven’s first symphony and Mozart’s overture to his opera “The Abduction from the Seraglio.” The second half of the show will feature Wijeratne’s tabla concerto, and Hall explained starting the piece with traditional western music lays the groundwork for the audience to further appreciate how the tabla concerto combines western and Indian influences.

“I think for an audience member to have this first half that’s very clean and clear in Mozart and Beethoven, something very fresh to listen to, it sets up the audience’s ears for this very intricate, interesting, colorful tabla concerto in the second half,” Hall said.

“He’s written a piece that incorporates this Indian rhythm cycles in amalgamating it with Western notation, Western rhythms, Western instruments. That’s what makes the piece so fascinating is that it’s this is peak at the two different styles coming together,” Hall continued.

The tabla soloist is Shawn Mativetsky, who first discovered the tabla when he was a teenager and called it a life changing moment. At the time he was already studying western classical music, and said he also began studying Northern Indian music too.

“This is really a way for me to bring my two musical personalities together and at the same time share my love for this instrument. It’s an amazing instrument, and to share that with everybody, whether it’s people who have never heard the tabla before and are discovering it for the first time, or people who do know the instrument and they’re hearing it in a new way,” Mativetsky said.

Mativetsky is excited to show the community the versatility of the tabla, and he pointed specifically to the unique rhythms of Northern Indian music as an aspect he finds particularly interesting in the upcoming concerto.

“It’s all based on the idea of rhythmic cycles, and in this piece we explore different rhythmic cycles. The typical teentaal is a sixteen beat cycle, there’s a seven beat cycle, there’s 14, there’s even a 15 beat cycle in there. So we explore lots of different rhythms. It’s metabolized in a way, dancing through different kinds of rhythm to the instrument itself,” he said.

The performance will take place on Sunday, November 19 at 2:00 p.m. at Vanier Hall. You can buy tickets at the PGSO’s website here.