Bach and Bruckner

            The Orchestra of Southern Utah opens their 2012-2013 Concert Season: Soundscapes with an evening of Bach and Bruckner on Thursday, September 27 at 7:30 p.m.  These celebrities of Classical Music have their works featured by the Orchestra, guest pianists, and the Southern Utah Chorale.

The Orchestra welcomes featured artists Gerald Rheault and Erika Dobson, who perform Bach’s Concerto No. 1 in C minor for 2 Pianos. 

            Rheault is the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Greenshow Music Director and Associate Conductor.  He plays keyboard in the Les Miserables pit orchestra.  He serves as Assistant Conductor for OSU.  Rheault also currently holds the position of SUU College of Visual and Performing Arts Staff Music Director, Conductor and Accompanist.

            Dobson is a student at SUU majoring in biology and minoring in music.  She has performed with the National Federation of Music Club for several years and was selected to perform at Utah State Solo & Ensemble.  In addition to playing the piano, Dobson is also proficient with the flute.

            Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist.  His abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until the early 1800s. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time

The Southern Utah Chorale, under the direction of Adrianne Tawa and James Harrison, joins the Orchestra for Bach’s Cantata BVW 196.  Soloists will be soprano Sara Guttenberg, tenor Lawrence Johnson, and baritone Alex Byers.  Guttenberg and Johnson are SUU Music faculty musicians and Byers is an SUU student. 

Bach performed a cantata each Sunday and feast day as the musical director of the Leipzig’s Boys’ Choir.  The cantatas corresponded to the scriptural readings of the week. Bach  composed over 300 sacred cantatas, as well as a number of secular cantatas, usually for civic events such as council inaugurations.

The September 27 concert concludes with Symphony #8, Finale by Bruckner, performed by OSU and the SUU Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Xun Sun.

                     Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets.  His humility was widely recognized among composers of his day.  Bruckner was greatly admired by later composers, including his friend Gustav Mahler, who described him as "half simpleton, half God".

The Orchestra of Southern Fall Concert features composers Bach and Bruckner on Thursday, September 27 at 7:30 pm.  Doors open at 6:45. 

Tickets may be purchased for $10 adults and $5 for students (ages six and up); groups of six are $30 per concert.  Tickets are available one week prior to the concert at the Cedar City Heritage Center Box Office, 105 N. 100 E. or by calling 435-865-2882. Purchasing tickets in advance is recommended. Season tickets are also available at the Box Office and Cedar Music Store and Studio.

Children over the age of six are welcome at all the concerts with adult supervision.  OSU requests that babies and children less than six years old not attend as evening concerts are recorded.

For more information, please visit www.orchestraofsouthernutah.org, email osucedarcity@gmail.com, or call Sara Penny at (435) 586-2286.

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