The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the launching of a search for a new Artistic/Musical Director this Spring 2013.  The board seeks an outstanding conductor to lead the Symphony of the Lakes orchestra.  Please see Symphony News below for more information.

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

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.

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.

Pirates of the Caribbean Suite From Walt Disney Pictures’   Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl by Klaus Badelt (1968- ), Arranged by Ted Ricketts

Symphonic Suite from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by Howard Shore (1946- ), Arranged by John Whitney

Tribute to John Williams by John Williams (1932- ), Adapted by Paul Lavender

Danse Macabre, Op. 40 by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

Hoe-Down from Rodeo  by Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Star Wars Suite for Orchestra by John Williams (1932 – )

7:30pm Saturday, November 12^th, 2011 “Dueling Soloists”      Rodeheaver Auditorium

Dvorak: Slavonic Dance

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (1^st mvt.)

Grieg: Piano Concerto

2:00pm Sunday December 4^th, 2011 “The Nutcracker“    Warsaw Performing Arts Center

(In collaboration with Debra Collier’s School of Dance and Lee Anne Stewart Dance School)

7:30pm Saturday, April 28^th, 2012 “Musicals and More”                           Rodeheaver Auditorium

The mission of Symphony of the Lakes is to enhance the cultural climate of our community and to encourage the appreciation and enjoyment of symphonic music through inspiring performances of the highest quality to an ever-growing audience.

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.

Before we bring out the soloists, the orchestra performs one overture to set the tone of the evening. We’ve selected Beethoven’s famous Coriolan Overture, composed in 1807, in the midst of the Napoleonic struggles. The music represents the emotional drama of the Roman leader, Coriolanus, as he fights between his war-like desires to conquer and the peaceful influence of his mother’s pleas. Beethoven gives musical themes to both sides and masterfully resolves them in the quiet finale.

Then we present three single-movement works of contrasting nature. The first piece, taken from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, is rather light-hearted. There are three wonderful soloists, Gert Kumi on violin and flutists Arturo Osorio and Amanda Zambrano. As with all of Bach’s concertos, the intricate counterpoint between the solo instruments and the orchestra is marvelous.

From the cheerful Bach concerto we move to a work of supreme pathos, the Faure Elegy. The piece begins with a somber, funereal theme but soon moves to an animated tune of great beauty. This accelerates to a climatic section that in turn brings back the open theme again. Solo cellist Barbara Kavanaugh performs the Elegy with an excellent balance of passion and musical precision.

The next work comes from sunny Spain, Navarra by the great violinist and composer, Sarasate. This is a “concerto” in the most virtuosic sense. The two solo violinists – Gert Kumi and Rebecca Benjamin – sometimes seem to be in a competition to see who can play the fastest notes. We’ll let you decide, but it is truly an amazing demonstration of talent.

After a short intermission, we introduce a soloist from another orchestra, David Elliott, who plays principal horn in the Lexington Philharmonic in Lexington, KY. He presents Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 3 with so much gusto that we wish the composer were still around so he could hear it with us!

Symphony of the Lakes is in the process of changing our logo, and you still have the opportunity to give your opinion!  Vote at the concert or vote online by April 1^st at www.symphonyofthelakes.com.

You will not want to miss the Symphony of the Lake’s Soloists Night! The performance is free and open to the community, including whole families. Come Saturday night, March 19^th at 7:30pm, to the Warsaw Performing Arts Center of Warsaw Community High School. For further information, call the Symphony of the Lakes office at 574-267-1888 or email information@symphonyofthelakes.com.

Symphony of the Lakes 1001 College Ave, Winona Lake, IN 46590

(574) 267-1888

information@symphonyofthelakes.com