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Invincible Czars Performing Re-Imagined 1812 Overture Sunday

Updated: Friday, June 29 2012, 06:12 PM CDT
By Rob Faubion, AustinOnStage.com

Austin’s Invincible Czars -  the high-spirited, 6-piece band that combines nightclub sensibility with nuanced composition and performance - will debut their upcoming album 1812 Overture with an “Olde Fashioned Independence Day Indoor Picnic and 1812 Overture Record Release and Concert” on Sunday. 

The celebration takes place on July 1 at the Scottish Rite Theater, starting at 2 p.m.

The family-friendly music event celebrates not only the 1812 Overture album release, but also the band’s affinity for culture in retrospect.  The Sunday afternoon event will feature themed food and beverage, roaming performers, old-fashioned entertainment, classic cartoon shorts and oddities from the Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata.  Guests are also invited to bring their own picnic blankets to the event.

The 1812 Overture recording represents the band’s fourth full-length album, modernizing and "Austin-izing" Tchaikovsky’s most bombastic work.  Unlike the band’s popular Nutcracker Suite, guitarist Josh Robins’ arrangement of 1812 Overture remains supremely faithful to Tchaikovsky’s original score with only one major change – the alteration from E-flat to D, “for the sake of heaviness, of course,” Robins said. 

The Invincible Czars debuted their version of 1812 Overture in June 2009 at the OKMozart! Festival in Bartlesville, OK, complete with fireworks. Since then, the Czars have performed the piece in Austin at the Bob Bullock State History Museum and Wooldridge Park. The year 2012 marks the bicentennial of the events that inspired the piece.

The symphonic work was written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1880 to commemorate Russia's defense of Moscow against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino in 1812.  The overture is best known for its climactic volley of cannon fire, ringing chimes and brass fanfare finale, frequently used as an accompaniment to Fourth of July fireworks displays - will be performed by the Austin Symphony Orchestra at their annual July 4th concert at Auditorium Shores.

The Invincible Czars fuses riff rock, classical and symphonic music, heavy metal, loungey grooves, odd meters, klezmer, country shuffles, punk rock and circusy polka.  In addition to their original material, the ensemble has become known for original, silent film scores and their wacky live performances and recording of Tchaikovsky’s traditional “Nutcracker Suite.” Band members include Phil Davidson on violin, Leila Henley on winds, Gonzalo Ramos on drums, Bill Petersen on keyboard, Josh Robins on guitar and Hen3ry Q. Vines on bass.

Tickets for the concert event are $12 for adults and free admission for kids 12 and under.  The Scottish Rite Theater is located at 207 West 18th Street.  For more information, visit www.InvincibleCzars.com.

(Photo courtesy Invincible Czars)Invincible Czars Performing Re-Imagined 1812 Overture Sunday