Gypsy tunes perk up audience at Kiggins

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When Michael Liu was trying to decide what type of music to play with his friends for an upcoming concert, he focused on this all-important question: “What would we have the most fun with?”

The group of six classical musicians — most of whom work in the medical field — settled on Romani music, which they performed at the “Spirit of the Gypsies” show Sunday afternoon in downtown Vancouver’s Kiggins Theatre. It was part of the Chamber Series of concerts organized by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

“There were many composers who were influenced by this style,” Liu told an audience of about 110 people, adding that Romani music was “the street music of the time.”

For the show’s first number, Liu played at a grand piano while clarinetists William Blayney and Igor Shakhman faced each other at the front of the stage. The trio performed Carl Baermann’s Duo Concertant, Op. 33. The song started out slow, but switched to an up-tempo pace and even became hurried at times.

Listening in the second row, popcorn and candy in hand, was the Trang family. Parents Brook and Bruce brought their sons, Colin, 9, and Tegen, 7, to see friend Liu perform. The show had a bonus for Colin, his parents said.

“Our son is just learning to play the piano, so we thought, ‘What a great experience for him,’ ” Brook said before the show. It was the family’s first time inside Kiggins, except for Brook, who was last there when she was a girl. It’s changed since then, she said. “It’s really beautiful, and the seats are nice — I’m totally surprised.”

The show billed its musicians as some of the area’s best, including violinist Thomas Hwang, cellist Betsy Goy and bassist Edward Sale. Organizers gave the crowd a crash course in Gypsy — or Romani — music, explaining that the exuberant style of music varied depending on the region. The genre has a history in several Eurasian countries, including Romania, Russia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and northern India.

Sunday’s event was free for guests 17 and younger, and the concession stand served beer and wine for those 21 and older.

It wasn’t until recently that the theater was allowed to serve alcohol in the auditorium during all-ages events, but Washington state lawmakers passed a bill in 2013 that let small movie houses serve beer and wine in the auditorium even when minors are present.

This is the second year the theater has teamed up with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as part of an effort to revitalize the city’s downtown. Richard Brase, marketing director for the orchestra, said that attendance for the concert series is about 25 percent higher than it was last year in the same venue. He added that the theater is an added draw for music lovers.

“Thanks to the Kiggins, we can say we’ve been successful,” Brase said.

Barbara Wright moved to Ridgefield recently from Seattle and has been to a Vancouver Symphony Orchestra show before, but it was her first time inside the theater.

Since moving to Clark County, “we thought we’d be going to Portland a lot, but it seems like there’s a lot of things to do in Vancouver,” Wright said.

The “Spirit of the Gypsies” show was the second of six concerts in the orchestra’s Chamber Series — all of which are on a Sunday at the theater. The other four shows start early next year.