Fireworks Concert Sends Sparks Flying

Gail Vaughan and Robert Ballanti come from Boise every year for the Royal Fireworks Concert in Spokane’s Riverfront Park, and they’ve never even seen the fireworks.

They play oboes and aren’t able to watch the pyrotechnics. But that hasn’t stopped them from creating a few sparks of their own.

They met four years ago while in Spokane for the Royal Fireworks Concert and started dating three years ago the weekend of the show. Ballanti proposed two years ago, after a rehearsal, on the bridge outside of the Opera House.

They were married last year.

“Every year, we come back and stand on the bridge and kiss,” said Vaughan, whose treble-clef earrings dangled from her ears. “We created our own fireworks. As far as we know, we’re the only marriage that has come from this event.”

Vaughan, her husband and about 60 other musicians practiced all weekend for the 17th-annual Royal Fireworks Concert on Sunday night in the park.

About 50,000 people gathered near the Opera House to hear music written by Bruslard and Beethoven, plus the grand finale, the “Musick for the Royal Fireworks” by Handel.

As in other years, the fireworks were timed to go off with the finale.

Michel Jolivet of Seattle has been playing for this concert for 10 years. He plays a contrabassoon, an instrument twice as large as a bassoon; it would measure 16 feet if stretched from end to end.

The fireworks concert is Jolivet’s favorite, and it’s not just because he can wear his Birkenstocks sandals.

“It’s just fun - what can I say?” he said.

“To play with this many doublereed instruments - you just never get to do this.”

That’s what they all said - the musicians playing the oboes, the bassoons, the contrabassoons and the ophicleide.

They never get to play with so many of their peers.

This concert has created a strange fraternity of performers who keep coming back.

“You get lonesome in the community, being the only bassoon,” said Curt Nelson of Coeur d’Alene.

Many of the musicians can’t see the fireworks. They have their own remedies - especially the bassoonists, whose backs are to the display.

“If I have a rearview mirror on my stand, I can see,” Nelson said.

He’s done that in the past. So has bassoon player Luke Bakken, but he forgot his mirror this year.

He’s plotting.

“One of these years, we’ll get it changed,” Bakken said. “The mutiny of the bassoon section. We’ll get the other side.”

Leonard Byrne, who plays tuba in the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, plays the ophicleide in the fireworks show. He used to listen to the concert before he started playing in it five years ago.

“Frankly, this is the only fireworks show in town worth going to,” Byrne said. “They don’t drag it out from one small one to the next. They shoot everything off at once. It’s a real splash of color.”

About 4:30 p.m., people started showing up at Riverfront Park to find their spots. All the blankets formed a patchwork quilt fit for giants.

Stories from past years have reached mythical status. Some people once set up a linen tablecloth with candelabra, crystal and china.

Two bearded bikers on Harley-Davidsons once were observed near the entryway of the Opera House listening to the show. One turned to the other and said: “Man, isn’t that cool music?”

That’s music to musicians’ ears - and to Beverly Biggs, who organizes the event every year with David Dutton.

“It was written to be played outdoors, and we play it outdoors,” Biggs said. “Shucks - a 60-piece band. How about that? It’s just a magical combination.”

, DataTimes