Troupe, symphony scale artistic heights

P.I. Tchaikovsky’s 1878 Violin Concerto is as renowned as it is difficult, an oft-performed piece that requires tremendous dexterity and skill. It’s hard enough to play with both feet on the ground, so consider the challenge of performing it while being hoisted a hundred feet into the air.

That’s the task of violinist Veronica Gan, who will play that great Tchaikovsky composition this weekend as part of the touring musical circus troupe Cirque Musica. The concert, which will also feature the Spokane Symphony, marries acrobatic feats with famous pieces of classical music.

“It’s a blend of two of the most difficult arts that there are: the symphonic arts and the circus arts,” Gan said. “This is a really great exposure to both of these arts for anyone who doesn’t know one or the other.”

Gan has been performing with Cirque Musica since 2012, traveling with a small group of acrobats and circus performers that make up the troupe.

She’s been playing violin since she was 10 – “But never did I think I’d be taking it around in the air,” she said with a laugh – and has worked as a session musician for artists like Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and Josh Groban.

But it was a hired gig for Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ 70th birthday that made her realize she had the chops to perform with Cirque Musica.

“(Jones) wanted five women in white gowns to be harnessed to a chandelier and be pulled up and down in the Cowboys stadium while they ate dinner,” Gan recalled. “So I felt like that gave me more experience than most people.”

The Tchaikovsky concerto is part of a standard repertoire for advanced violinists, and Gan said she performed the piece often before joining the troupe.

“It’s something that everybody learns in school, and I’ve done it a lot in orchestral auditions,” she said. “It’s a piece that I really felt close to and kind of have in my back pocket. … But it’s difficult to play, even on the ground.”

Like much of Cirque Musica’s show, Gan’s flying routine requires several moving parts. First, she’s fitted with a body harness and attached to a line by a hook behind her neck. Her violin is attached to a scarf she wears, and her bow is attached to her wrist. She’s lifted up into the rafters right as the Tchaikovsky concerto reaches its cadenza – “Which is the hardest part, conveniently,” Gan said with a laugh – and actually swings out over the crowd in larger venues.

And even though she’s dangling from vertigo-inducing heights, her biggest fear, she said, is playing the concerto incorrectly.

“When you’re in a potentially life-threatening situation, it’s still second nature for a musician to freak out about that,” Gan said. “It’s really weird. Like, ‘Please don’t embarrass yourself in front of all these musicians.’ ”

Because of that dedication to the craft, Gan said she believes the Cirque Musica show will work as a musical primer for audiences who don’t regularly attend symphony concerts.

“This will definitely open people up to going to more symphonic concerts,” she said. “They go to see the circus, but they hear and feel the power of a live symphony orchestra.”

As for regular symphony attendees, Gan thinks they’ll also have their horizons broadened.

“They’re not usually interested in circus performing, but I think this opens them up to see how difficult what they do is,” she said. “They’re both just beautiful together. … The show’s called ‘Crescendo,’ and when (it builds) to the end of the show, you just can’t believe what’s happening in front of you.”