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In order to fully enjoy your family and friends you need to hear them clearly. If you have diffculties hearing, Yarmouth Audiology is the answer. Doctors Kristie Iacuessa, Au.D. and Krista Riccioni, Au.D. offer the highest level of hearing healthcare and treatment solution in a comfortable, home-like setting
Please call us today, if you have questions or would like to schedule an appointment.
owned and operated for over 30
Alfred M. Senter Fund Trust
Nathaniel Davis Fund
Van Winkle Family
Charitable Fund
Mission Statement
The Midcoast Symphony Orchestra provides an outlet for talented musicians to study, perform, and share their love for symphonic music with audiences and the wider community through performances and educational activities for all ages.
The Midcoast Symphony Orchestra is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1990 as the Midcoast Chamber Orchestra by a group of musicians interested in making music together. During our first decade, we performed at various venues throughout the Midcoast, finally finding a permanent home at the Orion Performing Arts Center in 2002. In 2004, we began our residency at the Franco Center in Lewiston and hired Rohan Smith as our Music Director. Rohan has gradually increased the depth and breadth of the orchestra’s repertoire to include not only classics of the canon, but also new music by a variety of diverse composers from around the world. As the orchestra grew, we changed our name in 2005 to Midcoast Symphony Orchestra.
Over the past two decades, we have consistently received high praise from audiences and critics alike, and have performed with a variety of world-class artists who share their talents with our audiences, as well as helping our musicians learn from them. In addition to our regular concert series, we have “More with Midcoast,” education and community engagement
Mid Coast Hospital performance
Meet the Instruments for all ages
Free "Music in the Park" concerts
programs that support our goal to contribute significantly to the cultural life of midcoast and central Maine.
“The Midcoast Symphony now could stand comparison with many professional orchestras. Bravo and brava to all ! ”
From
Christopher Hyde’s “Classical Beat” column, Maine Sunday Telegram
We now have over 80 members on our roster who all volunteer their time and talents to rehearse and perform classical music while juggling busy lives as teachers, doctors, homemakers, business people, retired people, professional musicians, and a variety of other occupations. Our musicians hail from the Midcoast, Lewiston-Auburn, and Portland regions, and we are excited to connect further with audiences and talented players from our state.
The orchestra welcomes membership inquiries from musicians who would like to join our orchestra. Please contact us at info@midcoastsymphony.org or (207) 315-1712.
More information about the MSO can be found on our website: MidcoastSymphony.org.
AS NEIGHBORS IN THE NORTHEAST, we’re always standing by. Visit us online at PatriotInsuranceCo.com
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Regardless of whatever legal problems you are up against, you can count on my 30 years of experience to make great things happen for you too.
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So let me take care of it and you go right back to sleep. Sweet dreams.
So let me take care of it and you go right back to sleep. Sweet dreams.
Rohan Smith, Conductor and Music Director
As I start my 21st season with the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra, I have been reflecting on our orchestra’s amazing progress, the ways in which it has grown in skill and stature, how fresh and vital the orchestra’s joyful commitment is to making music at our very highest level, and how incredibly lucky I am to be working with this community of musicians. I wonder what the magic ingredient is, and I think it is that through mutual exploration of the language of each composer whom we perform, we enter a new and different experience of life, in a process that always renews us. What a privilege this is!
Over the short period since public concert life re-opened after the pandemic, it has been thrilling that so many fine new players have joined the Midcoast Symphony, along with a wonderful new administrative team full of initiative and ideas. With input from our program committee, all members of the orchestra, we have a new season spanning the most diverse range of music. We have a family program titled “Invigorating Water Music” that features the Judith Elser Concerto Competition Winner, trombonist Joshua Zhang. We welcome esteemed guest conductor Hiroya Miura leading a program of works of fiery passion, and we welcome distinguished Maine soloists Robert Lehmann, violin, and Kimberly Lehmann, viola, who will perform in Mozart’s great Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat.
Our concert season combines beloved symphonies with the regular programming of living and diverse composers. Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, inspired by the awe of nature; Schumann’s triumphant Symphony No. 2, in which he journeys from darkness to hope; Haydn’s witty and appealing Symphony No. 83, “The Hen”; Prokofiev’s exultant and athletic Symphony No. 5; and Stravinsky’s ground-breaking ballet suite from The Firebird are our major works. They are united with a rich palette of music by Courtney Bryan, Duke Ellington, Charles Ives, Franz Liszt, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and others.
The MSO and I look forward to sharing all this music with you at our concerts!
Megan Hayes-Teague, Principal; Annie Arnold, Assistant Principal; and Renovia Marro-Day and Josh Hyssong, Music Teachers
Friends of MSO
Our support group who volunteer for orchestra activities and are advocates for audience development
Program Notes Author
Mary Hunter
Program Editor
Carol Preston
Stage Crew
Mike Adair, Ara Dedekian, Chris Hall, Moira Walden, and Holly Whitehead
Recording Technician
Trevor Peterson
Radio Interviews
Denise Shannon
MSO Musician Volunteers
The many musician volunteers who work behind the scenes, as well as perform on stage and joyfully engage in our community outreach performances and events
It JUST COMES NATURALLY
Timothy Kenlan, President
Denise Shannon, Secretary
Carol Preston, Treasurer Directors:
Quinn Gormley Kathryn Krott
Rachel Stettler Ted Walworth
Ex Officio: Michael Levine
Music Director: Rohan Smith
Executive Director: Michael R. Levine mlevine@midcoastsymphony.org
Orchestra Manager: Billie Jo Brito billiejo@midcoastsymphony.org
Box Office Manager: John O’Connor boxoffice@midcoastsymphony.org or 207-481-0790
Librarian: Beth Almquist
Bookkeeper: Cynthia Fabbricatore
Friends of MSO: info@MidcoastSymphony.org or 207-315-1712
Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/midcoastsymphony
Through photography, drama, and the violin, Noah is ALL IN for the Arts because NYA is ALL IN for Noah.
MSO would like to thank those who made our concerts possible with their generous contributions. The list below acknowledges donations received during our last fiscal year from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. Donations received between July 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, will be acknowledged on an insert in the program at the January concert, “Invigorating Water Music.” While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of this list, please contact our office should you find any errors or omissions.
Anonymous
Donald Christie, Jr.
Robert Frank
Mary Hunter & James Parakilas
In Loving Memory of Sandy Morton
In Memory of William Diehl
Donald & Carolyn Kanicki
Janice & Ed Kieschnick
Timothy M. Kenlan
Gerry Orem and Sarah Schaffer
Ann Slocum
Cynthia Harkleroad
In memory of Dr. Eric Jacobson
Daniel Levine
Judy & George Metcalf
Irene & George Minich
Dr. Richard & Sandra Neiman
Carol Redelsheimer
Denise Shannon & Richard Papetti
Kevin Wetheim & Ann Kibbie
Michael & Sally Adair
Beth Almquist
Dr. & Mrs. Richard A. Anderson
Yoko Aoshima
Lara Bailey
Elliot R. & Jean C. Barker
Rev. Robert Beringer
Arthur Boatin
Rachel Boddie
Eileen Bonine
Richard Breeden
Billie Jo Brito
Patricia Brown
Linda Brunner
Philip Carlsen
Peter & Liza Chandler
Caroline Chinlund
Thomas Clemence
Sally Clifford
David & Caroline Cornish
Jane Coryell & Irma J. Wilhelm
Anthony Debruyn
Ara & Marcia Dedekian
Richard DeVito
Patsy Dickinson & Greg Anderson
Linda Doyle
Rebecca Dreher
Karin Duncan
Jeff Ertman
Virginia Flanagan
Gerry Flanagan
David Fluharty & Linda Hjortland
Marilyn & Charles Flynn
Elaine Foelix
Johanna M. Frissel
Pamela Gormley
Kate & Bill Gray
Paul Greenstone
Suzanne Groshong
Frank Gross
Reginald & Pauline Hannaford
Lester & Sidney Hodgdon
Margaret Holland
Barbara Howard & Nick Poulton
Cynthia Howland
In honor of Muriel Cole and Amy Ives
Bruce Erwin Johnson
Catherine Johnson
Karen Jung
Eric Kawamoto
Richard & Reta King
Caroline Kmack
Katherine Jane Kresser
Eleanor & Peter Kuniholm
Ray & Sue Lagueux
Ed & Nancy Langbein
Meg Lewis
Ray & Jean Libby
Darren R. Linkin
Heather Linkin
Chris & Susan Livesay
Benjamin & Barbara Lounsbury
Edward & Barbara Lovely
T. Hope Mahoney
Abigail & Alix Manny
Margaret McGaughey
Nancy & Robert Morrell
Sally Morrison & Gary Haggard
Margaret & Martin Naas
Ann Nanovic
Fred Nehring
Julie O’Brien-Merrill
Aaron Park
David & Julie Pease
Trevor Peterson
Elizabeth Pettigrew
Marjorie Platou
Carol A. Pope
Carol Preston
Joel & Judy Preston
Matthew Redding
Jennifer Reeber
Allison Reese
Lynn Reese
Marjorie Roberson
Stephanie and Kathryn Rosenfeld
Emily Roy
Joanne Roy
Karen Rye
Norman & Alicia Scott
Elizabeth Scully
Rick Seeley
Richard Sipe
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Stanridge
Mitchell & Martha Stein
David & Rachel F. Stettler
Mary Swain
John Teller
Jotham Trafton
Woody & Susan Trask
Elizabeth Volckening
Moira M. Walden
Lisa & Joe Walker
Edward Walworth
Rick Wilson
Beth Aldenberg
Davida S. Andrew
Carol Atwood-Lyon
Stuart Baldwin
Glenn & Martha Bangs
Ed Barrett & Nancy Orr
Georgette Berube
Pamela Bobker
Roger Bogart
Barbara Burt
Jeffrey Cannon
Eleanor Cappon
Charles & Elsie Cary
Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Chandler
Roland & Marie Kristine Christensen
Ann Christie
Susan Chrystal
Judith Clarke
Marie Clarke
Linda Clement
Peter Cook
Ray Cornils & David Bellville
Jacquelyn Cressy
Joseph D’Appolito
Robert & Judy Dent
John & Laura Dorrer
Melissa Doyle
Carolee Drotos-Swales
Paul & Rita Dube
Pamela & Garth Duff
Julianne Eberl
Judith Falconer
Meghan Fenton
Judith Fiterman
Clara Forkey
Irene Frechette
Eugenia Gallagher
Charles Gardner
Wesley Gillis
Robin Glassman
Hubbard & Katherine Goodrich
Robyn Gray
Sally Gundersen
JL Hahn
Marjorie Hart
Melanie & Gary Hatfield
Christine Holden
Dory Holmes
Amy & Jonathan Ives
Beckett Jordan
Gretchen Kamilewicz
Joan Kelly
Kristin Kenlan
Gerald & Mary Kennedy
Joan Knight
Michael Levine
Judy Lloyd
Lara Lupien
Karen Luse
Chris & Carson Lutes
Donna Maher
Ursula McAllister
Shelia McGarr
Elizabeth Messler
Susan Mikesell
Charles Morrison
John O’Connor
Anne & Michael Olivo
Herbert & Harriet Paris
Beth Preston
Douglas Rooks
Richard Ruddell
William Sayres
Tyler Sherwin
Laurel K. Sisson
Judith Stallworth
Robert Teller
Elizabeth Warren-White
Patricia West
Marjorie A. Whipple
Emily White
Rupert & Ruth White
Robert C. & Ann K. Williams
Sarah Woolf-Wade
Carol Preston, Concertmaster*
Jessie Boardman
Jeanne DiFranco
Wesley Gillis*
Mary Hunter*
Eric Kawamoto*
Micaela Merrill
Sally Morrison*
Julia O’Brien-Merrill*
Trevor Peterson*
Emily Roy*
Rick Seeley*
Tyler Sherwin*
Caroline Cornish, Principal*
Phoebe Blume*
Jayden Brown
Mariah Charland
Ara Dedekian
Judith Falconer
Robert Frank*
Bev Hochberg
Liberty Hunt
Janice Kieschnick*
Meghan Metzger*
Julie Pease*
Kate Rosenfeld
Denise Shannon*
Moira Walden*
Suki Flanagan*
James Parakilas*
Heather Linkin, Principal*
Rebecca Dreher*
Meg Estapa*
Meg Lewis*
Abigail Nash
Jeanie Wester
Karen Jung, Co-principal*
Patsy Dickinson, Co-principal*
Ben Bridges
Philip Carlsen*
Jen Reeber*
Martha Stein*
Rachel Stettler*
Ellen Sullivan
Lisa Walker*
Holly Whitehead
Alex Wong
Laura Zitske*
Paul Greenstone, Principal*
Michael Adair*
Thomas Baumgarte*
Anne Nanovic*
Eileen Bonine, Principal*
Sally Gundersen*
Sandy Kauffman
Alicia Scott*
Billie Jo Brito, Principal*
Jamee Ard*
Sarah Dow
Carol Furman, Co-principal
Rachel Boddie, Co-principal*
Ray Libby
Frank Gross, Principal*
Chris Falcone
Ted Walworth* (+ Contra-bassoon)
Beth Almquist, Co-principal*
Cynthia Harkleroad, Co-principal*
Sarah Rodgers*
Daine Shuler
Timothy Kenlan, Principal*
Gerry Flanagan*
Martin Naas
Bruce Theriault, Principal
Jeff Ertman*
Chris Hall
Douglas Ertman*
Quinn Gormley, Principal*
Anne-Marie D’Amico
Durell Bissinger
*This musician is sponsored by one or more persons or organizations through a “Chair Sponsorship” fundraising effort.
The “MSO Friends” is a group of community members who directly support the orchestra’s activities by helping with important tasks such as fundraising, ushering, and ticket sales. They are valuable advocates for the orchestra within the community and have been responsible for bringing many new audience members to these performances.
If you would like to join in this effort or learn more about their activities, please speak to one of the “Friends,” call the orchestra office at 207-315-1712, or email info@midcoastsymphony.org.
The following are MSO Friends who provided invaluable support to the orchestra during the 2023–24 season, volunteering at concerts and helping with special projects:
Sally Adair
Jane Almeida
Roger Bogart
Steven Bonine
Dirk & Linda Brunner
Margaret Craven
Judy Fiterman
Debbie Hawkins
Simon & Joy Hayes
Linda Hornig
Elise Johnson
Donna Johnstone
Sally Johnstone
Katie Krott
Peggy Mason
Ashley McMahon
David Merrill
Joyce Paradis
Dan Pelletier
Beth Preston
Barbara Rondeau
John Teller
Nan & Steve White
Peter Woodrow
More with Midcoast
Other More with Midcoast Programs
The Judith Elser Concerto Competition honors the memory of Judy Elser (1940-2015), a longtime music teacher who played cello in the MSO for many years, served on the Board, and left a generous bequest to the orchestra when she died. We are grateful for all she gave to the orchestra and know that she would be thrilled to witness the personal growth and success her gift has made possible for our young entrants and winners.
Legacy donations, in which you designate the MSO as a beneficiary of a portion of your assets after your lifetime, are an incredibly powerful method of supporting your favorite community orchestra without impacting your current financial status. Legacy donations are fully tax-deductible and offer a great financial benefit to both the MSO and your heirs. Ask your financial advisor for more information about the impact of a legacy gift on your estate.
The biennial Judith Elser Concerto Competition was made possible by a generous legacy donation from a longtime MSO musician. Her generosity allows college musicians to compete for a $1,000 cash prize as well a soloist position with MSO in the upcoming season.
MSO provides its members with unique musicmaking opportunities and its audiences with high-quality concerts at reasonable prices. We are committed to reaching out to people beyond our immediate audience to share our enthusiasm for music and rely on the generosity of our supporters to make this possible. A legacy donation from you can offer this kind of resource, and we would be most honored if you would consider it.
For more information please contact Executive Director Michael Levine at mlevine@midcoastsymphony.org.
Conductor and violinist Rohan Smith has been Music Director of the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra since 2003. He has led the MSO to critical acclaim in performances of the major symphonic repertoire from all eras. In recent seasons, Smith and MSO have performed Mahler’s First and Fourth Symphonies; Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra; Beethoven’s Eroica, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Symphonies; Brahms’s First and Second Symphonies; Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique; Debussy’s Nocturnes; Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2.
In May 2006, MSO under Smith was one of only 65 orchestras across America to perform the newly commissioned “Made in America” by Joan Tower. In May 2015, Smith led the Midcoast Symphony, the Oratorio Chorale, and Vox Nova in two memorable performances of the Verdi Requiem.
Rohan Smith is Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where he conducts the Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra. Smith has conducted the PEA Chamber Orchestra on cultural exchange, service, and outreach tours to Vietnam, Hong Kong, Quebec, England, New York, and the Coachella Valley, California, performing there for children of immigrant farm workers.
As an orchestral violinist in New York, Rohan Smith performed regularly with the American Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the New Orchestra of Westchester, and on Broadway. He has performed under conductors
James Levine, Kurt Masur, Andrew Davis, Kyrill Kondrashin, Dennis Russell Davies, Mark Elder, Kurt Sanderling, and Charles Mackerras. As an orchestral violinist he has been privileged to perform with many distinguished artists such as Jessye Norman, Itzhak Perlman, Thomas Hampson, Marilyn Horne, Pinchas Zuckerman, Midori, Kathleen Battle, Andre Watts, Garrick Ohlson, Billy Taylor, and Frank Sinatra.
MSO musicians play for curious kids at a local YMCA
MSO entertains community at a free concert in the park MSO is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations to MSO
Kids try playing instruments at MSO’ s “Meet the Instruments”
Conductor and Music Director
Smith performed with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer for many years, including frequent performances at Haydn’s summer residence at the Esterhazy palace near Eisenstadt, and in festivals throughout Europe, Japan, and Taiwan. In 1991 and 1995, he participated in the Mahler Festspiel in Kassel, Germany, with members of the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and Concertgebouw orchestras under the batons of Adam Fischer and Manfred Honeck. Smith performs regularly with members of America’s leading orchestras in the “Music for Life” benefit concerts at Carnegie Hall, to bring attention to the humanitarian needs of refugees in Syria, Darfur, and HIV-infected children in Africa.
As a chamber musician, Smith has performed at the Kowmung Music Festival in Australia, the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, the Toronto International Chamber Music Festival, and Klangfrühling Schlaining in Austria. Smith was a member of the contemporary music group Terra Australis from 1986 to 1989 and performed with them as soloist at the 1988 Aspen Music Festival in Andrew Ford’s Chamber Concerto No. 3: In Constant Flight. He recorded several of Ford’s works on the CD Icarus, which was named one of the best 10 CDs by The Sydney Morning Herald i n 2001.
The Kowmung Music Festival with the audience in the background and the artists performing on a dance platform erected by goldminers in 1880. Photo by Stephen Fearnley.
The MSO Is Turning 35 !
Proud to support Midcoast Symphony Orchestra in their 35th Year!
April E Caron Financial Advisor
32 Pleasant Street Brunswick, ME 04011
207-729-1133
April.Caron@edwardjones.com
Jeff Guenther Financial Advisor
101 Centre St, Suite A Bath, ME 04530
For more information, contact your Edward Jones Financial Advisor. CEA-9901C-A
207-389-6124
Jeff.Guenther@edwardjones.com
Tom Carr, CFP ® Financial Advisor
15 Jordan Avenue Brunswick, ME 04011 207-729-9109
Tom.Carr@edwardjones.com
Jeffrey Labbe Financial Advisor
1 Front Street Bath, ME 04530 207- 442-9977
Jeffery.Labbe@edwardjones.com
Kelsie West Financial Advisor
1 Bowdoin Mill Island, Suite 204 Topsham, ME 04086 207-729-0578
The MSO began as a chamber group. Four friends, all string musicians, first began meeting in 1990 to play their favorite string quartets. They soon found themselves wanting to expand their repertoire but to do that, they needed to add players. They rounded up more musicians, and soon they were a chamber orchestra. Throughout the 1990s, the orchestra, under the direction of Paul Ross, rehearsed and performed at various venues along the Midcoast, including Bowdoin College. But as the orchestra continued to grow in size, it was clear that the chamber orchestra was becoming a full-size symphony and needed a permanent home.
In 2002, the orchestra was invited to be the orchestra-in-residence at the Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham. With a regular rehearsal and performance space, the orchestra began to focus on growing its membership and the difficulty of its repertoire. Growth required an orchestra manager and a music director who could move them forward musically.
John Teller, an oboist in the orchestra, was chosen by the board of directors to be the manager, and the orchestra initiated a search for a conductor. To their surprise and delight, 72 applicants responded to their ads. The field was narrowed to four, and during the 2002–03 season, the orchestra had each finalist conduct a concert. Australian-born conductor and violinist Rohan Smith emerged as the clear favorite. Rohan Smith’s leadership and considerable talent has attracted skilled local musicians as members, as well as world-class soloists to play with the orchestra.
In 2004 the newly created Franco-American Heritage Center (now the Franco Center) in Lewiston formed a partnership with the orchestra, providing a second venue in which to play. The MSO has offered concert weekends at both venues for the past two decades.
During the 2013–14 season, the board of directors started a successful fundraising campaign that allows the organization to have a deeper, more enduring impact. Income from this cash reserve fund provided the funds necessary to hire an executive director and orchestra manager. John Teller was an obvious choice for this new role. Since that time, the cash reserve has grown to the point where it also supports a part-time box office manager as well as covering many of the other costs associated with operating a growing non-profit orchestra.
The orchestra’s other expenses are met by the sale of program advertising, sponsorships from local businesses, donations from individuals, and grants. Orchestra chair sponsorships also contribute significantly to the orchestra’s funding. Last season, about two-thirds of the orchestra members were sponsored in this way by one or more individual donors. The orchestra’s annual budget last year was about $180,000. The orchestra is also supported by community volunteers who usher at concerts, host fund-raising dinners, and more. They are the much-valued Friends of the MSO.
Over the past decades, the MSO has added more members until growing to its current size of about 80 musicians. In addition to showcasing the talents of these community members, the MSO regularly hires professional guest artists to perform with them. Pianists Charles Floyd (L), Frank Glazer (Below), and George Lopez (R), have performed with the orchestra several times. Young French pianist Lise de la Salle (L), internationally acclaimed violinist Eva Gruesser, trumpeter Wayne du Maine (Far R) of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and John Ferillo, principal oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others, have all spurred the orchestra members to grow their skills and musicianship.
Although audience sizes were impacted by the COVID pandemic, they are slowly rebounding to their usual level of about 2,700 –2,800 each season. Increasingly, children are part of the audience. And for the last several years, MSO has expanded its programming to include “More with Midcoast,” which features free educational and community outreach events. Also, the Elser Concerto Competition, with its inaugural season in 2017–18, provides music majors currently attending a Maine college or university the opportunity to compete to become a guest soloist with MSO.
As the MSO begins its 35th season, the organization has established itself as a mainstay of the Lewiston/Auburn and Brunswick/Topsham cultural landscape. Thank you for helping the MSO become the Midcoast’s most successful community orchestra!
Majestic Earth Movements
Majestic Earth Movements
Courtney Bryan, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, is “a pianist and composer of panoramic interests” (The New York Times). She is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and currently serves as composer-in-residence with Opera Philadelphia. Her work has been presented in a wide range of venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Blue Note Jazz Club, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. She frequently collaborates with visual artists, directors, and writers.
Bryan writes about “Bridges”:
“Bridges” is a tribute to the city of Jacksonville, its diverse communities, and the bridges that bring them together. As Mary Carr Patton Composer-in-Residence with the Jacksonville Symphony, I have had the opportunity to learn about Jacksonville (and St. Augustine) by visiting museums and galleries, historic landmarks, educational institutions, and by meeting with contemporary artists, art supporters, and residents. A central inspiration for the music comes from my visits to several schools in different neighborhoods of Jacksonville where the young students improvised sound[s] of their neighborhoods, particularly sounds of water, weather, and traffic.
Intermission
“Bridges” begins with an acknowledgment of the early cultural encounters of Northeast Florida along the St. Johns River from the time of Ossachite to Cowford to Jacksonville, including the Timucua (Saturiwa), French, Spanish, West African, British, Seminole, and Americans. Following this are musical responses to my experiences while visiting Jacksonville. While bridges may separate the city, this piece celebrates how through people’s intentions and actions, they can bring the city together.
Mozart wrote this work in Salzburg in 1779 during his last sojourn in the city where he was born, where his father was employed, and where Michael Haydn (Joseph Haydn’s younger brother) was given the court organist job that Mozart had been subbing for. This time in Salzburg followed immediately upon the trip he took with his mother to Mannheim and Paris: a trip notable not only for its failure to secure Mozart permanent employment but also for a doomed love affair in Mannheim and the sudden and devastating
Majestic Earth Movements
death of his mother in Paris. Despite the many disappointments and tragedies, however, Mozart learned a huge amount from the distinct musical cultures of these two cities, including the dist inctly French fashion for concertante writing—that is, ensemble music in which several or many players get their chance at a star turn.
In concertante chamber music the players all get soloistic material in turn; in concertante symphonies, two or more orchestral players get prominent soloistic roles. Mozart wrote two complete concertante symphonies—one for flute and harp, actually written in Paris, and this better-known one for two strings, including the rarely-featured viola, for which Mozart is said to have had a particular fondness. Two more, for piano and violin, and for violin, viola, and cello respectively, remain incomplete. Another, for four wind instruments, is of uncertain origin.
Late eighteenth-century music (Mozart, Haydn, and their contemporaries) is often described as modeling social processes—not because it takes groups of people to play it, which is true of most music, but because the way both the different parts (high and low, strings and winds, etc.) and the different phrases relate to one another. That musical sociability is especially clear in this work as the two soloists imitate, question and answer, one-up, contradict, and even blissfully agree. Even the extraordinary (and justly famous) middle movement, which begins like a tragic operatic aria with a single tune and clear accompaniment, turns into a complex web of relationships once both soloists engage. We do not know who played or listened to this work in its original performance, but we can imagine that it gave them as much pleasure as it does us.
Jean Sibelius is a complicated figure. He lived over 90 years, but composed almost nothing for the last 30 years of his life. He is the pre-eminent symbol of Finnish music, but he grew up in Finland as a Swedish-speaking Russian subject and constructed his Finnish identity slowly and very consciously. He thought of himself as a modernist but rejected the principal modern musical trends of the early twentieth century.
His Fifth Symphony (he wrote seven in all) took many years to reach its final version. Begun in 1914, its final version (the one most often played
today, and the one we will perform) was premiered in 1919 and published two years later. It counts as a relatively late work written, according to musicologist James Hepokoski, as he was presenting himself as a lonely soul forging a unique aesthetic path and finding both solace and inspiration in nature. This was toward the end of a career spent traveling to European and American cities to great success, especially in Britain and the U.S. Once he returned home for good, his villa Ainola, situated in the forest outside Helsinki, remained his retreat until his death.
The symphony is in three movements: the first being in two parts, first slow, then fast. It begins with strikingly rudimentary material, like lumps of musical clay waiting to be shaped into something. We hear bits of fanfarelike music, but without the definite rhythm that we would normally expect from a fanfare. This motive actually derives from Sibelius’s incidental music to Strindberg’s fairy-tale play Swanwhite After a couple of repetitions, it develops a faster stepwise ending which has a more discernible beat. The whole first section of this movement plays the fanfare-like material (mostly in the brass and winds) off against more stepwise—and often faster—ideas that are often in the strings. The music speeds up and turns into a fast waltz-like idea, in which we can still hear the stepwise ending idea from the opening and some remnants of the fanfare. It ends in a blaze of excitement.
In contrast to the opening of the first movement, the second movement is all about a definite rhythm, which would match the words “I love this MU-sic.” It is a far cry from both the fogginess and the frenzy of the first movement, but Sibelius continues to pit long hymn-like lines in the winds and brass against faster passages in the strings. The last movement begins as a kind of emotional counterpart to the fast section of the opening movement—it’s a quick folk-like tune, this time played in particularly excited fashion by the strings (two really fast bow strokes to every note). But before long the French horns take over the celebrations with a striking, slower, see-sawing idea which turns into the most important material of the movement. This unusual tune is said to be Sibelius’s response to the sight and sound of the migrating swans flying above his forest home. It is the most easily memorable and noble material in the symphony, and suggests the power and majesty of both the northern landscape and its non-human inhabitants.
Robert and Kimberly Lehmann started their duo partnership long before they married. While in residence at the Heidelberg Opera Festival in Germany, they would often busk on the streets for extra spending money. Beer and Bratkartoffeln for one, ice cream for the other! After they married they often found themselves playing through a great deal of duos they inherited from Robert’s grandparents (amateur musicians themselves). Between violin/violin and violin/viola combinations, they have spent many hours enjoying this unique pastime.
Over the years they have added to their repertory and enjoy creating programs that balance established violin/viola duos with new works and creative arrangements of everything from Bach’s two-part inventions to tangos. The Lehmanns have performed duo programs all over New England and California, have performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with various orchestras, and have concertized in Mexico and Europe: most recently at the American Church in Paris; Vienna, Austria; F-13 Private House Concerts in Mainz, Germany; Sebastianskapelle in Baden, Switzerland; and the Assisi Performing Arts Festival in Assisi, Italy.
Originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Kimberly received degrees from the University of Minnesota and the Eastman School of Music. She has been a member of the Colorado Springs Symphony and the Boston Philharmonic, and is now a member of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. She is Artist Faculty at the USM School of Music and concertizes throughout New England as both a soloist and orchestral player.
Robert studied at the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica in his native Mexico City, and then received degrees from the University of the Pacific, the Eastman School, and Boston University. He is Professor of Music, Director of Orchestral Activities and String Studies at the Osher School of Music at the University of Southern Maine, where he conducts the Southern Maine Symphony and Portland Youth Symphony, and is Music Director of the North Shore Philharmonic and White Mountain Bach Festival. He is a frequent guest conductor for the Portland Symphony Orchestra.
Little bug, big problem.
Fun Facts
What makes the mso a community orchestra?
There are over 1,800 orchestras in the U.S. However, only about 20% have professional, paid musicians, according to the League of American Orchestras. The other 80% are volunteer, or community, orchestras like MSO, made up of musicians who donate their time and effort to entertain, educate, and inspire their local communities.
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Invigorating Water Music
Invigorating Water Music
This family-friendly concert is designed to illustrate the way music and water are connected. It traces this relationship over time from whale song (perhaps the original water music) in Hovhaness’s “And God Created Great Whales” to the effects of modern industrial manufacturing on rivers in Charles Ives’s “The Housatonic at Stockbridge.”
The first three selections (played without a break) feature the first movement from a suite (a set of pieces) by Handel that was designed to be played by musicians floating down the River Thames on barges. Even setting aside the possibility of bad weather, rough waters, and so on, the music had to communicate (no microphones or speakers) to people standing on the banks or in other boats. You can hear how clear and bright the sounds have to be to make this happen. The next two pieces relate to the idea of a river in different ways. Duke Ellington’s piece “The Spring” from his suite “The River” suggests how a little trickle can become something mightier. Ives’s “The Housatonic at Stockbridge” suggests what may lie underneath the apparently placid surface of a river used for industry.
Next we have a special guest appearance by Kyle Almquist, who won our “Conduct the Orchestra” silent auction prize. He leads us in a short section of Tchaikovsky’s famous Swan Lake ballet. This is the theme that is associated with Odette, the swan/human heroine of the ballet, who, as the music suggests, comes to a sad end.
Next is Mendelssohn’s “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage,” written when Mendelssohn was only 18, and inspired by two poems by the German poet Goethe. The first one (“The Calm Sea”) includes the lines “Deathly silence! In that huge expanse, the water does not even ripple.” The second (“Prosperous Voyage”) says “The sky is bright!...Hurry up...I already see land!”
The next piece is not water-related. Joshua Zhang, winner of this year’s Judith Elser Concerto Competition, will play the first movement of Henri Tomasi’s elegant Trombone Concerto. Tomasi wrote concertos for all the wind instruments except the flute and also one for the viola. This one’s use of orchestral color is distinctively French, and its emphasis on lovely melodies makes sense when we know that Tomasi’s primary interest was opera.
The first two pieces after intermission, played without a break, include the famous “Hornpipe” from Handel’s Water Music A hornpipe is a British folk dance in a slowish triple meter (beats grouped into threes); the name may or may not derive from an ancient musical instrument, unsurprisingly built from an animal’s horn. After the “Hornpipe,” the whales enter. Actually, the whales (recorded) don’t show up until after the orchestra suggests roiling water, something huge and majestic, and then a growing folk-like tune over the bubbling accompaniment.
The final two pieces put Duke Ellington’s quietly meandering river, set to a slow swing beat, and complete with piano and harp twinkles in the sun, next to Smetana’s famous portrayal of the noble and fast-flowing Moldau River (the German term for the Vltava River in Bohemia, or what is now the Czech Republic). Some listeners may hear the resemblance between the main tune of this piece and the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah. The resemblance is unmistakable, but there was no direct borrowing involved; both tunes probably derive from a Romanian folk song known in the 1800s, and probably earlier, as “Cart and Oxen.”
Joshua Zhang is a computer science and music double major at Colby College from Wayland, Massachusetts. He began playing trombone in 4th grade and studied with Brian Kay from 5th grade through 12th grade. Zhang has been studying with Sebastian Jerosch since coming to Colby. He was selected for the NAfME All National Honors Wind Ensemble, All Eastern Wind Ensemble, MMEA All State Orchestra/ Wind Ensemble, and Senior and Junior District Ensembles. He played in the Rivers Youth Symphony Orchestra from 7th through 12th grade as principal trombone.
In the summer of 2022, Zhang attended Interlochen Arts Camp as a Frederick Fennell Scholar, playing in the World Youth Wind Symphony as principal trombone. Zhang won the John Philip Sousa Award for High School Band. He was also a finalist for the UMass Young Artist Competition, and he won the Second Century Award at New England Music Camp. In 2023, Zhang won Colby College’s concerto competition and performed the first movement of the Grøndahl Trombone Concerto with the Colby Symphony Orchestra, earning Colby’s Music Department Performance Prize of 2023.
Fun Facts
Who decides what music will be in a concert?
Our music director and conductor, Rohan Smith, heads up a programming committee of several musicians from the orchestra. They meet a few times each year to plan concert programs for the following season.
Besides picking great music for our audience to hear and players to perform, the committee also considers the cost of purchasing or renting the music (which can be considerable), what extra musicians might be needed, and whether we will have guest artists.
We invite you to enjoy music by some of the area ’ s best youth musicians at intermission during Franco Center concerts. The performances take place in the Heritage Hall downstairs from the main auditorium.
Photo by Yuegang Zhang
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Passionate & Fiery
Compositions
Passionate & Fiery Compositions
Featuring Guest Conductor Hiroya Miura
The Greek myth of Prometheus has various versions, but the essence is that he, a Titan, stole fire from the gods to give to humankind, thus enabling civilization (warmth and cooking being the beginning of all higher things). The gods punished him by tying him to a rock and sending an eagle (a stand-in for Zeus) to eat his liver, only to have it regrow overnight and be eaten again. For the Romantics, Prometheus signified the strength of the human spirit. Goethe and Shelley among others wrote poems on this myth. Johann Gottfried von Herder, an important early German Romantic writer, wrote his play, The Bound Prometheus, intended as a sequel to the ancient Greek author Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound. Liszt’s piece is a reworking of the cantata he wrote using the words of the play on the occasion of an unveiling of a statue of Herder in Weimar, Herder’s hometown, and Liszt’s place of employment. Liszt writes in his preface to the score that the myth is full of “mysterious ideas, dark traditions, and hope, which live so vividly entangled in our souls that we don’t know which is true.” Liszt’s music untangles the dark from the light quite definitively, but both the torturous rock and the solace of hope are powerfully depicted.
Intermission
Robert Schumann is famous for his concentration on one genre at a time for about a year: 1840 was a year of song, 1842 a year of chamber music, and 1843 an oratorio year. 1841 is described as his symphonic year because it saw the production of his First Symphony and an early version of what we now call his fourth. The Second Symphony was not written until 1845–46. Its first performance, by the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, was conducted by Schumann’s friend Felix Mendelssohn. It did not go over well, perhaps, as Schumann’s biographer John Daverio notes, because Mendelssohn had encored Rossini’s William Tell overture (the one that ends with the Lone Ranger theme) before intermission. (Schumann’s work was in the second half of the concert.) Both the sheer amount of music and the contrast between Rossini’s infectious jollity and Schumann’s more complex emotional presentation may have contributed to this response. The second performance—also conducted by Mendelssohn—was a much greater success.
Schumann knew his Beethoven, his Schubert, and his Bach, and all can be detected in this work: Beethoven’s grandeur, especially in the last movement, Schubert’s innocent-seeming melodies, especially evident in the Trios of the Scherzo; and Bach’s counterpoint (which Schumann had been studying intensively in 1845), which is evident at times throughout the work. But regardless of these and other echoes of Schumann’s ancestors, this is a highly original and quintessentially Schumann-like work.
Most classical music deploys contrasting ideas to shape the music and keep the listener’s attention, but Schumann’s use of contrast is very much his own. It is sometimes subtle but often bold and gives the impression of a psychological disposition that cannot truly settle. For example, the very opening of the symphony juxtaposes the smooth movement of the strings with the jumpy fanfare-like motif in the brass. This dialogue between jumpy or twitchy ideas and longer-breathed smoother ones animates the whole first movement. Neither wins out. The very fast main parts of the second movement evoke barely-seen creatures darting around, perhaps reminding us of Romantic literature’s fondness for the supernatural. (Schumann was deeply versed in the literature of his time.) The contrasting sections bring us back to a more grounded world of folk songs and then hymn tunes. The to-die-for slow movement epitomizes Romantic yearning in its stretchy main tune, but close to the end of the movement a section of austere Bach-like counterpoint makes a sudden appearance; it’s unclear why. The finale starts with a squared-off and militarized version of the first movement’s twitchy rhythm and contrasts that with a chorale-like tune. Neither is absorbed into or defeated by the other; rather they exist as complementary halves of a single entity.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an African-British composer and conductor. He studied at the Royal College of Music, conducted many choral groups, and finished his career at the Trinity College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music. His most famous work was Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, a cantata set to the words of Bowdoin College’s own Nathaniel Hawthorne. He visited the United States three times and was profoundly influenced by the works of Harlem Renaissance poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and others. His “Ballade” for orchestra was commissioned in 1898 by the renowned Three Choirs Festival on the recommendation of Edward Elgar.
Passionate & Fiery Compositions
In poetry, the ballade is often a narrative form, telling a story that often ends in catastrophe. Musical ballades often follow a comparable path. In this piece, Coleridge-Taylor alternates between foreboding, dramatic gestures and sentimental, lyrical music. You can read any number of oppositions into this—bad vs. good, dark vs. light, pessimistic vs. optimistic, masculine vs. feminine. Whatever you imagine, the good/light/optimistic/feminine part is contained and confined by its opposite, even if not exactly defeated by it.
The Firebird (1909—1910) was the first of the three full-scale ballets that Stravinsky composed for Sergei Diaghilev, the great Russian impresario who ran the Ballets Russes in Paris. One of Diaghilev’s goals for this company was that it should present its Parisian audiences with a compelling, if also exoticized, version of Russian culture, but also with works that advertised their modernism. One of the criticisms of his presentations in 1909 was that the music was less innovative and exciting than the staging and dancing. Hence his invitation to Stravinsky to bring something musically new and exciting to the French capital.
There are several Russian legends combined in Diaghilev’s Firebird. The Firebird herself is a force for good in the world, initially captured, then freed by Prince Ivan, who takes one of her magic feathers. He enters the enchanted garden of the evil Koschei, where thirteen captive princesses are playing. Ivan has fallen in love with the youngest one, and they dance a slow dance (Khorovod) based on a Russian folksong also used by Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky’s main composition teacher. Koschei appears, threatening to turn Ivan into stone. Ivan summons the Firebird by using her magic feather. She appears and draws Koschei and his subjects into a wild “infernal dance,” which exhausts them to the point of slumber. The Finale celebrates a new dawn and the defeat of Koschei and the forces of evil.
Stravinsky’s music in this work is less radically modern and more indebted both to Russian folk style and Rimksy-Korsakov than in the ensuing two Diaghilev ballets—Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. Nonetheless, it delighted the Parisian audience, leading to Diaghilev’s two next commissions; Stravinsky’s brilliant deployment of his orchestral forces and compelling rhythms certainly anticipate his later work.
Hiroya Miura, a native of Sendai, Japan, has been active as a composer, performer, and conductor in North America. Acclaimed by Allan Kozinn of The New York Times as “acidic and tactile,” Miura’s compositions explore “the continuous change of balance” amongst the traditions, players, instruments, and sound objects.
Miura composed works for Speculum Musicae, New York New Music Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, Prague’s BERG Orchestra, Juilliard Percussion Ensemble, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Momenta Quartet, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, members of Reigakusha (gagaku ensemble based in Tokyo), Hidejiro Honjoh, and Yuji Takahashi, tese works were presented in venues and festivals such as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, Tokyo Opera City (Japan), Ostrava Days (Czech Republic), Vacances Percutantes (France), and Havana Contemporary Music Festival (Cuba). He is also a founding member of the electronic improvisation unit No One Receiving whose debut album from the Grain of Sound has won critical acclaim in Europe and the United States.
As a conductor Miura has given a number of premieres by emerging composers in New York area. He has been invited as a guest conductor for Edmonton’s Mercury Opera and La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York. In Europe, he has participated in masterclasses and performed with the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra and North Czech Philharmonic Teplice.
He was awarded Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts and Literary Arts residency, la Napoule Art Foundation residency, HB Studio Residency, and Willapa Bay AiR residency, amongst others.
He holds a D.M.A. degree from Columbia University, and is Associate Professor of music at Bates College, where he teaches music theory and composition, and directs the college orchestra. He is Artistic Director of Columbia University’s IMJS/Japanese Cultural Heritage Initiatives, and serves on the advisory board for the Composers Conference.
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Ethereal Weaves of Air
Ethereal Weaves of Air
Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to a musician mother, who named him after the African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (whose “Ballade” this orchestra played in March), Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was destined to be a composer. He was educated at the Manhattan School of Music and Princeton and studied conducting at the Salzburg Mozarteum. He composed music for ballets, theater, and movies; many songs and choral pieces; and several pieces for orchestra, including two Sinfoniettas. Today’s selection is the last movement of the first. Perkinson was equally comfortable in both classical and jazz styles, and this perpetual-motion Allegro furioso for strings combines a Baroque texture with jazzy syncopation.
Intermission
Haydn is often known as the “Father of the Symphony” which is only partly true. He is certainly the first composer whose symphonies remain in the repertory today, and probably the one whose symphonic output is so large (107 symphonies, written between 1759 and 1795), so stylistically various, and has influenced so many later composers. So even if other composers planted the seed of the genre, Haydn was the one who adopted it and raised it to the adulthood it has enjoyed ever since.
Haydn’s earliest 80 or so symphonies were written as more or less occasional entertainment for his employers, the Princes Eszterházy and their entourages. The Eszterházy establishment boasted an orchestra with some extraordinary players, and they served as a laboratory for Haydn’s endless experiments. Until the early 1780s, most of Haydn’s music was officially the property of the palace, so he did not have the option of making money from its publication. (Even so, pirate editions circulated around Europe, making money for their circulators, but not for Haydn). In 1781, Haydn was sufficiently famous that he could renegotiate his contract and offer his symphonies (and much else) to publishers. Hence the “Paris” symphonies, of which “La Poule” is one, which were written in Eszterháza, but for the grander orchestras of Paris.
Almost none of the nicknames for Haydn’s symphonies (the “London”, the “Schoolmaster,” the “Drumroll,” etc.) originated with Haydn. Some of them
relate to a place, some to a now-hard-to-reconsruct allusion, and some to an actual musical feature. “La Poule” is one of the latter. “Poule” is French for hen, and in the first movement there are two ideas that easily evoke a chicken pecking at the ground. One is the twitchy repeated-note idea that pervades the opening theme and then comes to prominence in the oboe. The other is the second main idea, played by the strings. Over a tick-tock accompaniment in the second violins, the first violins peck at each note of the new tune.
The second movement explores several musical topics—the simple, almost hymn-like theme of the opening, the idea of elaborating that theme, the notion of sudden disruption (wait for it!), and then the musical representation of waiting while nothing happens. These ideas play with and against each other throughout. Haydn’s Minuet movements (often placed third, as here) range from courtly politesse to stomping country dances. This one can be heard as a courtly version of the stomp. The last movement is essentially a jig (two big beats, each divided into three faster ones) and finishes this symphony, which started sternly in the minor, with a cheerful major-key romp.
Although Prokofiev began playing with elements of this symphony as early as 1934, it was actually written in 1944 –1945. By this time, Prokofiev had been back in the Soviet Union for seven years, and had been awarded the Stalin Prize and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and was, like Shostakovich, accorded privileges not available to most people. One of these was a summer place in a retreat in Ivanovo; Prokofiev got a glassed-in terrace overlooking a pond, while Shostakovich, there at the same time, got a former henhouse. Prokofiev wrote the symphony first as a piano draft, which both Dmitry Kabalevsky and Shostakovich praised.
Prokofiev himself conducted the first performance in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in January 1945, and it was an instant success, both with the public and with the Soviet arbiters of taste. Musicologist Simon Morrison quotes pianist Sviatoslav Richter as describing the scene in almost religious terms: “The hall was probably lit as usual, but when Prokofiev stood up, it seemed as though the light poured down on him from on high. He stood there, like a monument on a pedestal.” Following this success, Serge Koussevitzky, the legendary conductor of the Boston
Ethereal Weaves of Air Continued
Symphony, an active proponent of Russian music, and longtime friend and patron of Prokofiev (who had played his piano concertos with the Boston Symphony in the 1920s and 30s) performed it in Boston later the same year.
This symphony nods to Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, which was composed seven years earlier. That is a work that many have interpreted as a complex response to the terrifying Soviet control of artistic production and the devastating consequences that come with being excluded from the company of the “approved.” In 1944 Prokofiev had not been censored in the way that Shostakovich had been, though four years later both composers were accused of “formalism” and “modernism.” In their respective Fifth Symphonies, both composers use familiar “topics”—march, waltz, sentimental song, circus music—and structure their works in relatively familiar ways. Both composers use dissonance generously but largely remain within a tonal framework (that is, listeners can mostly hear that a particular note feels like “home”). But Prokofiev has an unabashedly romantic side that is much rarer in Shostakovich. The sweeping tune in the first movement and the lyrical moments of the third, slow, movement are very typical of this side of Prokofiev. And even the madcap circus of the second movement Scherzo, with its frenzied echoes of waltzes and its grotesquely mechanical moments lacks (to my ear at least) the bite of similar movements in Shostakovich.
If you enjoy learning more about the composers and pieces that the MSO performs, join our email list to receive regular insights about our concerts through our electronic newsletter which is published on average two times a month.
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What are the best seats in the auditorium?
Well, it all depends on what you like. For the best mix of sound, you’ll want to sit at least half-way back in the auditorium.
Of course, sitting up front gets you a great view of musicians at the front of the orchestra. It can be fun to see fingers and bows of the string section flying. However, you might not be able to see much of the players farther back. Watching a piano soloist’s hands can be fascinating. If this sounds appealing, make sure you choose a seat on the left side of the auditorium (as you face the stage).
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Sept. 6 and 7 Best of Broadway kicks of our 25th anniversary with the biggest hits of favorite Broadway shows presented by exceptional local performers. Performance Hall show with reserved seating. A special RSVP pre-show reception from 5 to 6 p.m. in Heritage Hall before the Saturday, Sept. 7 show only.
Sept. 12, Dec. 12, March 13, June 19 La Rencontre. Diverse cultures, performing arts, and languages come together. Meal and various types of entertainment.
Sept. 26 Wine Tasting with Edmond. Several wines of the summer will be tasted and served with appetizers. Edmond Gay will discuss an appreciation of pairing food and wine and how to drink wine. 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Oct. 12 Crystal Vision. There are many Fleetwood Mac cover bands across the country and around the world, but Crystal Vision’s particular claim to fame is the resemblance of the three primary vocals to the originals.
Oct. 27 Fiddle-icious is a community-based orchestra of whose members are determined to preserve the cultural heritage of Maine’s traditional fddle music, dances, and songs passed down from Scottish, Irish, Quebecois, and Acadian ancestors.
Nov. 9 Murder mystery dinner party! Featuring the cast of Mystery207 where you’ll witness and participate in fun skits and check out physical evidence. This drives the mystery and creates mini-goals to accomplish throughout the night.
Dec. 20, 21, 22 Sights & Sounds of Christmas! More than 30 performers will sing, dance, act, and produce an energetic and vibrant festive Christmas show complete with an immersive light show directed by Jake Hodgkin. Bring the Christmas spirit home with you!
Feb. 8 Dueling Pianos. Two pianists will play songs from a variety of genres simultaneously on two pianos. The pianists take requests from the audience and make the show interactive.
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Fun Facts What is this?
A French Horn is a type of brass instrument made of about 22 feet of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays a horn is known as a horn player or hornist.
