The concert will be held on Saturday, May 31 at 2 pm at Grace Lutheran Church, 1120 Walker Street, Port Townsend. The concert is FREE with donations gratefully accepted at the door to benefit Toni Boutilier. Everyone is welcome to attend even if they are unable to donate. No tickets or reservations are required. There will be a short reception after the concert.
Phil Hirschi composed a piece for solo cello in 2022, but the piece was never performed. Hirschi played cello with the fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra in the 1970s, which explored the melding of musical traditions from India with modern rock and jazz forms. This month he showed the score to Pamela Roberts, principal cellist with the Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra. She was immediately impressed with the composition, especially its refreshing themes and interesting rhythms.
When Hirschi and Roberts met to review the score Roberts had already scheduled a benefit concert to honor Toni Boutilier of Quilcene for her years of volunteer work across Jefferson County. So the timing was perfect for this premiere performance of Hirschi’s Sunny Day on Portage Bay - a Rhonda for solo cello.
Toni Boutilier loves cello music. She was diagnosed in 2017 at age 31 with breast cancer when her children were 5 and 12 years old. The cancer metastasized to her brain. She has received intensive treatments over the last eight years which have now impacted her heart. Medical bills are a constant in her life.
