Here’s another update just before the concert on Friday that will get you amped up for SPO co-founder Victor Cheng’s debut on the organ!

Most talk surrounding Victor’s organ playing is hush-hush in order to make the greatest impact on the audience at the concert, so I had to tread carefully in writing this. What I can tell you is that SPO will be playing Stokowski’s arrangement of Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue. I can also tell you that this is not an easy task. If you’re a lay person to music like me, you’ll be awed at the complexity of this stereotypically gothic instrument and the crazy concentration required to play it well.

Click here to read more on the thrill of hearing an organ perform with an orchestra.

I sat down with Kevin Lau to talk about a special concert piece which will debut at SPO’s upcoming performance, less than a week away. Victor Cheng, whose interview I will post in a couple of days, joined us with some great input.

The piece was born when the SPO team came up with the idea of calling audiences back into the concert hall after intermission by playing a specific theme. With repeat renditions at different concerts people could eventually begin to associate the theme with SPO–kind of like the musical equivalent of a logo. Victor and Kevin both believed the theme would serve its purpose best if it was composed as a Fanfare, one grand enough (and loud enough!) to attract the attention of a bustling audience at intermission. The Fanfare would then be incorporated into a longer, overture-style piece that would form the full version of the SPO theme.

Read on about Lau’s approach to writing this piece.