October 17 – 3:00pm
| What: | Concert for Families |
| When: | 3:00pm, Sunday, October 17, 2010 |
| Where: | Goshen College Music Center, Sauder Concert Hall |
The program for the fall concert by the Maple City Chamber Orchestra on Sunday, October 17, is intended to appeal especially to families with small children. It will be presented free of charge at 3 p.m. in Sauder Hall at Goshen College.
The orchestra will play two Hungarian Dances by Brahms, “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” by Benjamin Britten, and “The Story of Celeste” by George Kleinsinger.
Brian Mast, conductor, says:
“The Young Person’s Guide” (1946) has become a classic piece in music education for children, since it serves as a lively introduction to the various sections of the orchestra.
Subtitled “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell,” it begins with each section of the orchestra playing Henry Purcell’s theme, and then again presents each section playing a variation of the theme, beginning with the highest instrument, the piccolo, and ending with the basses and percussion. The piece concludes, in fortissimo, with an original fugue by Britten.
“The Story of Celeste” is a whimsical musical narration of the plight of Celeste, a forlorn melody who wanders the countryside, searching for someone to play her. The structure of the piece resembles Britten’s, since Celeste moves from one section of the orchestra to another, until she finally finds her “prince charming” in the cello, which plays her in a haunting solo.
“Celeste” was composed by George Kleinsinger (1914-82), who is best known for his other musical narration, “Tubby, the Tuba,” and many popular Broadway musical tunes and television scores.
The narrations in both the Britten and the Kleinsinger pieces will be performed on October 17 by Scott Hostetler, professor of vocal music at Goshen College.
The program will open with Hungarian Dances No. 5 and No. 6 (1869) by Johannes Brahms, who composed 21 such dances for piano solo. Various other composers made orchestral arrangements of the dances, which are the versions most often performed today.
The concert will last about one hour, with one intermission.
The Maple City Chamber Orchestra, with 45 members, relies on individual and corporate financial contributions in order to present four free concerts each year. It was founded in 1996 by Goshen native Michael Ruhling, now associate professor of Fine Arts/Music at the Rochester (NY) Institute of Technology. The orchestra offers an e-mail newsletter, through its website.
October 9th, 2010 at 8:51 am
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