Lovers’ concerto: Couple to present first-time collaboration at Albany Symphony Orchestra event

ALBANY — Musicians Peter Geldrich and Shannon Lowe have been playing orchestral music together for more than two decades. But the married couple will experience a first Saturday when they play a duet for clarinet and bassoon — with the backing of the Albany Symphony Orchestra — during the symphony’s “Romantic Music by Candlelight” at Doublegate Country Club’s ballroom.

The special Albany Symphony fundraiser, which kicks off at 5:30 p.m. with cocktails and includes an elegant dinner enjoyed to the accompaniment of the orchestra, will feature “Chocolate Symphony,” a duet performed by principal clarinetist Geldrich and principal bassoonist Lowe.

And while performing might seem old hat to some who have the combined experience of Geldrich and Lowe, both of whom received specialist degrees in their instruments, this will be the first time they will be paired for a special clarinet/bassoon duet.

“This is absolutely a big deal,” Geldrich, an associate professor in clarinet at Valdosta State University, said of Saturday’s performance. “It’s very unusual to find concertos that feature soloists, and there are even fewer written for clarinet and bassoon. In fact I can count on one hand the number of such pieces … I can think of three.”

That Geldrich and Lowe, who have been married for 15 years, were selected for the special performance that will take place during the dessert portion of Saturday’s performance was a part of ASO Musical Director/Conductor Claire Fox Hillard’s master plan for the first-time event.

“You do a little searching, and Valentine’s Day orchestral dinners are being advertised all over Atlanta,” Hillard said. “I thought it would be something a little different — something unique — for southwest Georgia. In planning the event, I figured it would be a special touch to have a married couple featured on Valentine’s. We found the ‘Chocolate Symphony,’ and that turned out to be perfect.”

Lowe, who is an associate professor of bassoon at the University of Florida, said the couple is looking forward to the rare opportunity presented them.

“Peter and I have played together with trios and quartets, but it’s just not common for two musical artists to find opportunities to play a solo piece like this together,” she said. “Playing with even a trio or a quartet — which we’ve done — is just a little less intimate. That’s why we’re so glad Claire came up with this idea for the Valentine’s Day performance.”

Lowe said she “had no idea” what a bassoon even was when she selected it as her instrument for middle school band. In fact, her musical specialty might have been the English horn … if her school band had such an instrument.

“When it was time for tryouts, I told the band director I wanted to play something different from everybody else,” Lowe said. “I said I wanted to play the English horn, but he said the school didn’t have one. He said I could choose the oboe or bassoon, and although I’d never seen one before, I chose the bassoon.”

Geldrich became enamored with the clarinet when his father, who had played in an Army band in the ’60s, played it around the house.

“My dad was a high school English teacher, and he always played the clarinet, mostly around the house,” Geldrich said. “He was my idol, and in the fourth grade I picked the clarinet as my instrument, to be like him. He had two clarinets — and old one and a newer one — and he gave me the good one. It became my instrument; all of my degrees — undergraduate, master’s, doctorate — were in clarinet.”

With both studying and earning advanced degrees in their musical instruments, Geldrich and Lowe ended up spending lots of time together, in classes and at rehearsals.

“I met my husband at the University of Florida, where we both were students,” Lowe said. “We ended up spending a lot of hours together, in classes and practicing our instruments. We became good friends, and then we fell in love.”

As a featured soloist, Geldrich has appeared with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, the Montclair (New Jersey) Symphony Orchestra, the Valdosta State Wind Ensemble, and the Carolina Master Chorale. He has performed in various regional, national and international conferences, including the International Clarinet Association’s Clarinetfest, the International Double Reed Society Conference, the World Alliance of Symphonic Band Ensembles International Conference, the National Flute Association’s Convention, the Music By Women Festival, the Society of Composers Inc. National Conference, and the Alabama MTNA Conference.

Before her arrival at UF, Lowe served as the associate professor of bassoon at Valdosta State University. She recently released the recording “A Musical Bouquet: Old, New and Borrowed Works for Bassoon and Strings through MSR Classics.”

Now, the couple will get that elusive first opportunity to perform a special piece together written specifically for their instruments.

“As (Hillard) said of this piece, it perfectly fits this concert,” Geldrich said. “It’s a perfectly cohesive part of this event. Claire has been wanting to do this kind of thing — feature married couples in the orchestra — and it turned out this is a great opportunity for such a spousal duet.”

So, yes, Saturday’s performance of the “Chocolate Symphony” with the backing of the symphony orchestra will be a historic one for Geldrich and Lowe. And as patrons enjoy their desserts to the tune of the perfectly chosen piece, love definitely will be in the air.

Tickets, which are available online at the symphony’s website or by phone at (229) 430-8733, are $100 each, and tables for eight may be purchased for $1,000. The romantic evening starts at 5:30 p.m. with cocktails at a cash bar, dinner at 6:30 and the concert at 7 p.m. The “Chocolate Symphony” is expected to start around 7:35 p.m.