7:30 pm – Saturday, October 13th “Costume Night” – Rodeheavor Auditorium

1:00 pm – Sunday, December 2nd “Excertps from the Nutcracker” - Performing Arts Center, Warsaw High School

• Featuring students from Debra Collier’s School of Dance & Lee Anne Stewart Dance Schools

 2013 Spring concert dependent upon funding

The Symphony of the Lakes presents another great concert this Saturday, November 12, 7:30pm at Rodeheaver Auditorium. It is a performance entitled Dueling Soloists and we really do have some amazing soloists performing with us: violinist Rebecca Benjamin and pianist Hugh Sung.

Rebecca is our local star! She is only 17, but she plays the violin with a passion and precision that are rarely found at any age. Starting on her instrument when she was just 3 ½, Rebecca has already performed solos with the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic, the Huntington University Chamber Players, the Ft. Wayne Youth Orchestra, and the MasterWorks Philharmonic – where she won its annual concerto competition. You will want to hear this fantastic violinist now, so that you can someday impress others by saying: “Why, I saw her perform when she was still in high school!”

Our other soloist is from Philadelphia, but is also a regular at the MasterWorks Festival. Hugh Sung is one of America’s greatest pianists – indeed, he has performed all over the world. He gave his debut at age eleven, performing a concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra. When he’s not traveling, Hugh is a full time collaborative pianist at the Curtis Institute of Music, having joined their staff in 1993. He has recorded with the Vox, Virtuosi, Avie, Biddulph, and CRI labels.

And the music these celebrated soloists are playing? Both are masterpieces, but we are opening the concert with a work that will show off the orchestra is its own right: the famous “Sabre Dance” by Khachaturian. Whether you already know its catchy tune or not, you will recognize it. Although originally written as part of a ballet, the Sabre Dance has been heard in everything from the movie Blues Brothers to the Simpsons TV show to a Super Nintendo video game.

Then Rebecca Benjamin appears and we perform the first movement to Tchaikovsky’s great Violin Concerto. It is known as one of the finest of its kind, but is also known for its technical difficulty and many virtuoso passages. This passionate composition was composed in 1878, while Tchaikovsky was visiting a lovely resort on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. The beauty of the environment found itself well represented by the beauty of the concerto.

Soloist Hugh Sung has chosen the famous Piano Concerto by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. It was composed in 1868 when the composer was only 24 years old, yet it has become one of the most beloved works in the repertoire. From its opening cadenza through its gorgeous slow movement and exuberant finale, the combination of the piano and the orchestra will have you entranced.

You will not want to miss Dueling Soloists! The performance is free and open to the community, and especially including whole families. Come Saturday night (7:30pm), November 12, at the Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake. For further information, call the Symphony of the Lakes office at 574-267-1888, email information@symphonyofthelakes.com or visit our website at www.symphonyofthelakes.com.

Symphony of the Lakes begins its 2011-2012 season this Saturday night, October 1. The concert is entitled “Costume Night” – and we invite you and your children to come in whatever costumes you like! We gave a performance with this title a few years ago and it was great fun for everyone.

The first “costume” piece is about pirates, specifically, the movie score to the first film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. This amazing music was composed by Hollywood’s Klaus Badelt, and is the best “Pirate Music” you’ve ever heard. Its swashbuckling movements, such as “The Pirates Cave,” “Fog Bound,” and “One Last Shot,” will leave you breathless.

Speaking of great movie scores, the next work evoking different costumes is Howard Shore’s magnificent music to The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring. As both the movie and the original book take place in the imaginary world of “Middle Earth,” so the score, too, is otherworldly and ethereal. The music depicts wizards, hobbits, dwarfs, and elves in a smorgasbord of orchestral colors.

Our next piece is a medley of music by the ultimate movie composer, John Williams. A few years ago, when he was given the coveted “Kennedy Center Honors,” this medley was created and premiered. It gives us the themes from Superman, Indiana Jones, E.T., Harry Potter, and Jaws – do you think anyone will come in a shark costume?

The next two pieces take us away from Hollywood, yet equally give us a number of costume images. Since October is Halloween month, we present Saint-Saens’ famous Danse Macabre, one of the spookiest pieces you’ll ever hear. Then the scene changes to the cowboys and Western Americana with a rousing performance of Aaron Copland’s “Hoe-down” from Rodeo.

We’ve saved the best until last. After a short intermission, Symphony of the Lakes presents the five-movement suite from Star Wars, again by John Williams. If you have seen the movie, the music will be very familiar, bringing characters like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Yoda, and of course, the arch-villain, Darth Vader.

Wow! You will not want to miss this wonderful opening to Symphony of the Lakes’ 2011-2012 season! The performance is free and open to the community – especially including whole families. Come Saturday night, 7:30pm, October 1st to Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake (doors open at 7:00pm). For further information, call the Symphony of the Lakes office at 574-267-1888 or email information@symphonyofthelakes.com.

The Symphony of the Lakes presents its season finale on Saturday night, April 16^th at 7:30pm in Rodeheaver Auditorium (doors open at 7:00pm). It is entitled “Music of the Lakes” – which seems rather appropriate for our orchestra performing in the “Land of the Lakes.” It is a wonderful program of great music that happens to do with bodies of water, so bring a towel!

This first example is called Water Music, written by George Frederic Handel – who composed Handel’s Messiah). The body of water involved is London’s Thames River. You see, the King of England was once mad at Handel, and the composer wanted to find a way back into the monarch’s favor. He learned that the King’s boat was to be on the river one afternoon. So Handel wrote some music, got some friends together, and floated his orchestra on a barge right by the King. It worked!

Our next watery selection is Beethoven’s famous “By the Brook” (the second movement of his Symphony No. 6). Beethoven loved nature, and he used to take walks by a little stream in northern Vienna. The flowing sounds of the brook are imitated by the music, and so are the nearby birds: the Nightingale (flute), the Cuckoo (clarinet), and the Quail (oboe).

We move from a little stream to a great river, The Moldau, which flows through the Czech Republic. The piece was composed by the great Czech composer, Bedrich Smetana. Although the water begins with just a trickle, it grows and grows through many stages and episodes. Sometimes through peaceful lakes, sometimes through violent rapids, it finally makes a triumphant entrance into the beautiful capitol of Prague.

Not too far away is the Danube River, and we then perform the well-known On the Beautiful Blue Danube, by the Waltz-King, Johann Strauss. These are great fun: fun to play, fun to hear, and fun to dance. I’ve seen the Danube in Vienna, and it’s not very blue anymore, but at least it inspired some great waltzes.

In the early 20^th Century, the French composer, Claude Debussy, wrote an amazing orchestra suite simply called La Mer (“The Sea”). It is a masterpiece of three huge movements. For our concert, we have selected its finale, “The Dialogue between the Wind and the Sea.”

How does one end such a concert? We chose a fantastic suite of pieces from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. You will all recognize its popular favorites: Some Enchanted Evening, Bali Ha’i, I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy, Younger than Springtime, Happy Talk, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair, and many others.

You will not want to miss this wonderful finale to Symphony of the Lake’s 2010-2011 season!  The performance is free and open to the community – especially including whole families. We will also announce our new logo at this 7:30pm performance Saturday night, April 16, at Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake. Doors open at 7:00pm.  For further information, call the Symphony of the Lakes office at 574-267-1888, email us at information@symphonyofthelakes.com, or check out our website at www.symphonyofthelakes.com.