Symphony is a triumph

'Triumph' a multicultural experience with a message

ANCHORAGE SYMPHONY: Audience thrills to Alaska debut of conductor's work."Triumph," an original work by Anchorage Symphony Orchestra music director Randall Craig Fleischer that incorporates Native American song and dance, made its Alaska debut Saturday night to a well-earned and seemingly endless standing ovation.

Beginning with a haunting, almost supernatural-sounding Native American flute solo by guest artist R. Carlos Nakai, "Triumph" builds into a complex, fascinating interplay between the classical orchestra and traditional Native performers, combining orchestral music with traditional Navajo song and dance performed by the Jones Benally Family. In each movement, the orchestra picks up the Native singers' melodies and expands on them, blending the classical and the traditional in breathtaking ways.