Flint River inspires Steven Landis’ concerto ‘Thronateeska’

ALBANY — The Flint River has attracted people to the area where Albany now stands for thousands of years. In looking for a characteristic of the community that has tied it together for the creation of a concerto for the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary, Steven Landis found all the inspiration he needed in the swift moving ribbon of water that passes through it.

Landis, a Gainesville, Fla., native who is now in Kansas City, Mo., pursuing a doctor of musical arts in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, said the idea for an original piece that would eventually become “Thronateeska,” which the Albany Symphony will premiere Saturday, began during a conversation with ASO Music Director Claire Fox Hillard in 2010.

Read a preview of the Albany Symphony ‘Water’ concert here.

“I was really given carte blanche by the conductor (Hillard) to do what I needed to do creatively,” Landis said in a phone interview last week. “We really wanted to tie in to the community … something unique about Albany.”

Focusing on Albany’s most prominent natural feature — the Flint River — for inspiration was an obvious choice to Landis, who spent a good part of his life hunting and fishing in Florida and the other parts of the South.

“I grew up in north-central Florida not very far from the Suwannee River,” he said. “I spent most of my youth on that river and the waterways of Florida and the rivers throughout the South. I’ve got an affinity for water, as do most people.