- [Narrator] Funding for this program has been provided by, the FS Foundation, bringing together adults of all abilities and backgrounds as they pursue passion, prosperity and purpose.

(upbeat classical music) Linda and Alvaro Pascotto, (upbeat classical music) The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

(upbeat classical music) Additional support provided by these funders.

(upbeat classical music) - Because of all the circumstances surrounding Classical Tahoe this year it had to come together extremely quickly.

And one piece that was particularly interesting to put together was the Vivaldi Bassoon Concerto.

- That is just an amazing piece of music.

It's the first time that I've gotten to perform it.

- Typically a soloist will have weeks or months to prepare a piece of music.

Our soloist Harrison Hollingsworth had about a week to prepare it and perform it, and did a fantastic job in making that happen.

- And it's so fun having front row seats to listen to Harrison play that piece.

He's an amazing bassoonist.

(upbeat classical music) (audience applauding) - We have a world premier this summer which is Debussy Sonata NO.5.

- And Kenneth Cooper wrote this arrangement of a Debussy piano piece.

And it's a totally unique challenge because not only is it for trumpet, clarinet, bassoon piano which is a very different combination, Debussy always wanted to make this piece for this instrumentation.

And he passed before he could ever realize this.

So Ken Cooper decided to take this challenge on to try to emulate what he thought Debussy would do to arrange a piece that's already well-known for pianists and arrange it in this very unique and fun ensemble.

So it's now our challenge to not only try to sound somewhat like a pianist, so they don't get mad at us for ruining their interpretations.

But how do all of our sounds combine to sound like one musical idea?

- It's our world premiere because we are the first to perform this piece.

And I've been listening to the guys rehearsing it and they sound fantastic.

It's quite difficult and not easy to put together, but they're so good.

- Some of the rhythms and the challenges of my trumpet part were definitely more piano based than what someone might write for trumpet.

So I have to make it sound easy, I have to make it sound as light as a clarinet or as with as much finesse as a piano player can.

Well, we're hoping that the audience thinks, I had no idea that was for piano, that was impressive.

Hopefully we send that message out in a very fun, playful, energetic, flourish.

(upbeat classical music) - So these are classic piano pieces that almost any pianist will know, if they haven't played it they'll have heard them since they were kids.

Except they're really blown up for this really colorful and vibrant instrumentation.

So like an example will be the interrupted serenade, which is this really funny scene where somebody is trying to serenade to their loved one at night and they keep getting interrupted by this orchestra next door that's making too much noise and the person gets increasingly angry.

And so normally it's a pianist alone doing that effect but now we actually have the actual instruments you would hear in that case.

(upbeat classical music) - The fun thing about preparing a chamber group piece is that there isn't a conductor.

We love conductors, but the fun part of not having the conductor there is it really is truly your own voice with the group.

That you have to come in with already your own perspective and your own statement.

What I wanna say with this piece?

So we're all collaborating and we found a great blend that I think is truly exciting, it's a totally new challenge.

I'd never quite played a piece that was designed for piano which I don't play really at all.

We're just putting our art stamp, our flavor, our colors on this traditional piano piece and trying to get a few laughs too, 'cause it definitely has some fun comic moments.

Music's all about fun, if you're not having fun, they're not doing it right.

(upbeat classical music) (audience applauding) - I'm performing a few songs by Rachmaninoff that have been arranged for piano and violin.

Those songs were taken up by the famous tenor John McCormack and the famous violinist Fritz Chrysler and Rachmaninoff himself at the piano.

So there's a tradition of doing them in these arrangements.

They're extraordinary pieces.

(upbeat classical music) (singing in foreign language) I'm half Greek, I'm half Chinese, I'm a gay man.

There are a lot of reasons why I think I felt outside looking in, you know, throughout my life.

And that experience has fed my artistry, and my artistry therefore feeds my experience of that as well.

One of the most beautiful things about being a musician and particularly a singer where we deal with words that are very concrete at times, it allows us to share those things in ways in which hopefully we can effect change on the world by getting the world to consider itself and to meditate on those themes and to find most importantly a point of connection and some empathy and compassion.

Because I think at the end of the day that's really the thing that's going to get us through.

(upbeat classical music) (singing in foreign language) (audience applauding) I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that music saves lives, it certainly has saved mine at many times.

It certainly got me through my adolescence and it's the thing that made me feel loved and helped me feel love.

And it has that power for so many, for those of us who make it, for those of us who love it, and for those of us who just experience it.

And I think that's why it's so important to keep the music going during a time like this.

Where we've all experienced loss personally on a personal level, we're experiencing it on an exponential level right now globally because of this pandemic.

It's so important for us to be able to express our grief and channel that into this place of love and healing and survival and forward motion.

(upbeat classical music) (audience applauding) - Everything learned this year, we have to build on.

I think the one thing that comes out of something as complicated as a year of a pandemic and losing your founding artistic director, is you can treat it as a tragedy and roll it up, or you can look at it as an opportunity to say, what could we be?

And I think everybody has been asking please let's do chamber music in the forest again.

So I think that will become a permanent fixture at Classical Tahoe.

(audience applauding) (upbeat classical music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program has been provided by, the FS Foundation, bringing together adults of all abilities and backgrounds as they pursue passion, prosperity and purpose.

(upbeat classical music) Linda and Alvaro Pascotto, (upbeat classical music) The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

(upbeat classical music) Additional support provided by these funders.

(upbeat classical music)