Étoiles Par Grand Vent (Homage to Saint-Exupéry) for guitar duo and orchestra by Olga Amelkina-Vera

Complete live performance of "Étoiles Par Grand Vent (Homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)" for guitar duo and orchestra by Olga Amelkina-Vera. New Texas Symphony Orchestra (Dr. Kathryn Brown, conductor) and Kithara Duo perform on May 22, 2022 at Moody Performance Hall, Dallas, TX. Learn more about Olga's compositions: https://olgaamelkinavera.com Get to know Kithara Duo: http://kitharaduo.com More about New Texas Symphony Orchestra: https://ntso.org Instrumentation: Piccolo Flutes 1, 2 Oboes 1,2 English Horn Clarinets in B-flat 1, 2 Bass Clarinet Bassoons 1, 2 Horns 1, 2, 3, 4 Trumpets in B-flat 1, 2, 3 Trombone 1, 2 Bass Trombone Tuba Percussion 1: Timpani, Tamtam Percussion 2: Crotales, Tamtam, Bass Drum, Whip, Triangle, Susp. Cymbal, Doumbek, Finger Cymbal Percussion 3: Glockenspiel, 2 Woodblocks (high and low), Crash Cymbal, Triangle, Maracas, Rainstick, Susp. Cymbal, Bass Drum Percussion 4: Triangle, Mark Tree, Marimba, Xylophone, Bass Drum Piano Guitars 1, 2 Violins I Violins II Violas Cellos Double Basses Program Notes: Étoiles Par Grand Vent was written in 2019 for the guitar and piano duo of Jay Kacherski and Lina Morita. The piece also exists in a guitar duo version, recorded by Kithara Duo. This orchestration is the reimagining of it as as a work for symphony orchestra with guitar duo, which I orchestrated especially for NTSO. The composition is inspired by the life and work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the great French author and pioneering aviator of the 20th century. Saint-Exupéry is best known throughout the world for his work The Little Prince; however, it is his book Wind, Sand, and Stars (Terre des Hommes in the original French) that most directly influenced my composition. Étoiles Par Grand Vent was the working title that Saint-Exupéry had considered for the book before settling on the eventual title. In this autobiographical novel, the writer captures many profound, poetic, and terrifying experiences of flying his airplane in various parts of the world and weather conditions. My composition seeks to capture the beauty, danger, and poetry of the experiences described by Saint-Exupéry: being caught in a cyclone off the coast of South America, miraculously surviving a crash in the Sahara desert, flying solo at night under the stars, soaring over mountains and the sea. In this piece, I hope to pay homage to a beautiful human being and a fellow wanderer. --Olga Amelkina-Vera Please see the following for more information: Olga Amelkina-Vera, composer: olgaamelkinavera.com Kithara Duo, classical guitar duo: kitharaduo.com New Texas Symphony Orchestra: ntso.org