ASO Opens 47th Season with Opening Gala concert
Music has the power to transport the listener to another time and
place, says Murray Gross, director of the Alma Symphony Orchestra.
“Attending a live concert can be a really surprising experience for
people,” says Gross. “When you get to the concert hall and hear the
orchestra live – we sometimes forget how exciting a live concert can
be. The music has the power to get inside you, to put you in another
frame of mind. You can get swept away during a live performance.”
The Alma Symphony Orchestra opens its 47th season with its annual
Opening Gala performance at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14 and 3 p.m. Sunday,
Oct. 15 in the Remick Heritage Center at Alma College. Tickets are $10
for adults and free for youth 18 and under. Call (989) 463-7304 for
ticket information.
The program features works by George Frideric Handel, Ralph Vaughan
Williams, Serge Prokofiev and Jean Sibelius. Joining the orchestra for
selections is faculty baritone Will Nichols.
“This is a concert with a lot of familiar music,” says Gross, who
returns for his third season as ASO conductor. “The performers have
really enjoyed working on the music because it is so melodic. Each of
the pieces are well known and have familiar tunes.”
The program opens with the lively “Music for the Royal Fireworks,”
which was written by Handel for an outdoor fireworks celebration in
1749 and features “wonderful baroque trumpets,” says Gross. “English
Folk Song Suite” was composed by Vaughan Williams, who was dedicated to
collecting and writing down the folk tunes of the British Isles in the
early 20th century.
Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kije” was composed in 1934 for the Russian film
by the same name. The concert closes with “Finlandia,” an 1899 piece by
Sibelius that’s “very Finnish; a nationalistic piece with a lot of
significance for the Finnish people,” says Gross.
The approximately 65-member orchestra features predominantly Alma
College students with some community members and other musicians from
the Alma area.
The ensemble includes Alma resident and trumpet player Phil Warsop,
assistant director of information technology at Alma College and former
instrument maker and repairman.
Posted: Wed, October 4th, 2006 at 8:14AM
