Saturday, October 20, 2018

Timeless Drama Concert on Nov. 8


Celebrate the Centenary of Leonard Bernstein with music from West Side Story and Candide on Thursday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Heritage Center. The Orchestra of Southern Utah presents Michelle Lambert as trombone soloist and also has some delightful LeRoy Anderson pieces for your enjoyment.

The Concert takes place on Nov. 8 at the Heritage Center (105 North 100 East, Cedar City) begins at 7:30 pm. Children over 6 are welcome with adult supervision. No babies please as the concert is recorded. Tickets are available now by either phone (435-592-6051) or by purchase at Heritage Center/Festival Hall.

Nov. 8, 2018: Timeless Drama by OSU at 7:30 pm
Heritage Theater: 105 N 100 E
Tickets- $12 Adults and $6 Students. Groups up to six $40.

Full Publicity Article to Share:
Orchestra of Southern Utah to Honor Leonard Bernstein in November Concert
By Tanisa Crosby

        As the weather begins to get cooler the Orchestra of Southern Utah (OSU) prepares for the November 8 concert, 7:30 p.m., at the Heritage Center.  The concert is centered on “Timeless Drama” and the well-known composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). This year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth and the Orchestra will perform pieces that celebrate and highlight his life.  Leonard Bernstein was a composer, conductor, educator and humanitarian and is regarded as a singular figure in American cultural history.
        Bernstein is known for his visceral and life-affirming compositions and created music that has echoed through generations.  His classical music was his biggest contribution and he continues to be one of the most widely performed composers. His music incorporated elements of rhythmic vitality of jazz and the lyrical intensity of art song while managing to still utilize musical roots, creating a diverse and wholly unique body of work.  To honor his musical legacy, the Orchestra will perform selections from West Side Story, which will feature popular tunes from the legendary musical.  They will also perform the ever popular Overture to Candide which is a classic for orchestras and bands alike.
        To go along with the theme of honoring composers from the 20th Century, OSU will perform two pieces by Leroy Anderson: Belle of the Ball and Blue Tango.  Leroy Anderson was another beloved composer from Bernstein’s era.  He is well known for using creative instrumental effects and occasionally using sound-generating items such as typewriters and sandpaper.  
Lastly, the Orchestra will display drama from an early time period and will be graced by trombone soloist Michelle Lambert performing Concerto in D Major by Antonio Capuzzi.  Lambert is an active soloist and teacher who also serves as a member of the Iron County School Board.
Xun Sun and Adam Lambert will be directing the concert.
        The “Timeless Drama” concert will take place on November 8th at 7:30 pm and will take place at the Heritage Center Theatre(105 N 100 E, Cedar City, UT, located behind Lins).  Tickets cost $12 for adults, $6 for students, and $40 for groups up to six. Children 6 and older are welcome to attend with adult supervision.  For more information contact OSU Manager Rebekah Hughes at (435)592-6051 or osucedarcity@gmail.com.
The Sorenson Legacy Foundation is the major concert sponsor and also assists with the VIP program that introduces 4th graders to the orchestra in the crucial year when they are deciding which instrument to study.
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Calendar Highlights:
Who:  Orchestra of Southern Utah
What: Timeless Drama Concert
Where: Heritage Theater, 105 N. 100 East, Cedar City
When: Thursday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m.
How:  You are invited to enjoy live music with your orchestra

Full bio for Michelle Lambert:
Michelle Lambert earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Brigham Young University in
trombone performance. Over the last twenty years, she has played professionally with the Joe
Muscolino Band, Calor Tropical, Sundance Summer Theater, and the Utah Shakespeare
Festival. In addition, she has engaged in numerous freelance performing and recording
opportunities. She has been featured as a soloist on recitals at Chadron State College, the
University of Wyoming, Southern Utah University, and the Temple Square Recital Series. Since
1995, she has maintained a professional teaching studio in which she has instructed low brass
players of every skill level. She remains an active teacher and performer as adjunct faculty at
SUU and as principal trombone and brass section leader with the Orchestra of Southern Utah.
Michelle recently earned a BA in English from SUU, and last spring she was appointed to the
Iron County School Board. She and her husband, Adam, are the parents of four children.



Sunday, October 14, 2018

A Scintillating Storm of Song


By Bryce Christensen

Intent on drawing a richer, fuller sound from the instrumentalists playing under his baton, the great Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini would often exhort them during rehearsals, “Cantare!  Cantare!”  (“Sing! Sing!”)  The metaphoric aptness of the maestro’s exhortation was never more evident than during the Orchestra of Southern Utah’s October 11th concert, when instruments of all kinds truly did sing, and did so as the perfect complement to the music of three marvelous choral ensembles, who with their own vocal cords made amply manifest in Cedar City’s Heritage Center the reason for Toscanini’s earnest pleading: “Cantare!  Cantare!” 

Welcoming the audience to the concert devoted to the theme “Stormy Highlights,” OSU President Harold Shirley reminded listeners that the fiercest storms are often those that rage not in the external elements but rather in our own hearts and minds.  Nothing, he remarked, does more than songs to sustain us through such internal tempests. 

The truth of Shirley’s words became manifest with the first notes sung by the Master Singers, Cedar City’s all-male chorale under the direction of Allan Lee.  With their first number “Stormy Weather” (written by Joseph Waddell Clokey, arranged by Caroleen Lee), the Master Singers’ voices transported listeners to a realm of emotional turbulence--and musical solace.  Accompanied by Caroleen Lee at the keyboard, the choir fused inner turmoil with harmonic comfort in the haunting chant of a soul seeking the residual meaning that persists when the joys of summer-like warm relationship disappear in the frigid snows of winter-like abandonment.  

The metaphoric significance of weather manifested itself again in the Master Singers’ second number: Harold Arlen’s “Stormy Weather.”  Reflecting its Cotton Club origins, this moody number (arranged by Hal Campbell) voices the misery of a woman experiencing a personal rainstorm because her lover has gone away.  With Danny Hansen as the accompanist for this number, the choir rendered the jazz harmonies and teary syncopation that make a great blues number at once woeful and beautiful. 

After the Master Singers concluded their second selection, the Red Rock Singers took to the stage to extend the concert’s foray into the emotions and melodies incubated by stormy weather.  In their first number, “Rainsong” by Houston Bright, this choir (under the direction of Keith Bradshaw) expressed the melancholy gloom of one mourning the loss of a loved one, experienced as a downpour of  “raindrops falling from a sodden sky.”  With Tracey Bradshaw accompanying at the piano, the vocalists in this ensemble powerfully conveyed the dark burden of this plangent number. 
As their second number, the Red Rock rose above the winds and clouds creating terrestrial storms to visit the moon, an orb long relied on by romantics to enlighten and lift them above ominous storms. Expressing a hopeful outlook on our sublunary experiences, choir members rendered this lovely song with a tenderness of nuance, so creating the perfect backdrop for soprano Marlo Ihler’s heart-piercingly beautiful solo, lyrical and poignant. 

As the third chorale of the concert, the all-female In Jubilo swept the audience into the tragedy of a storm caused by a lack of storms—namely, the human storm of drought-induced starvation.  Listeners felt the force of this terrible storm of continental proportion in In Jubilo’s first number, “Famine Song,” written by the four-woman group known as VIDA and arranged by Matthew Culloton.  Under the direction of Jackie Riddle-Jackson with Teresa Redd accompanying on the piano, the choir conveyed the profoundest human pathos as they voiced the earnest pleadings of an acutely distressed community of Sudanese basket-weavers pleading for the lives of loved ones threatened by extreme hunger in horribly parched Sub-Saharan Africa. 

The tone shifted when In Jubilo performed their second number, “High Flight.” Karen Linford Robinson’s musical arrangement of a famous poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.,”High Flight” distills the most exalted moment in the life of  an American pilot who flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force until his tragic death in 1941.  Capturing the pilot’s exultant feeling upon completing a high-altitude test flight, the lyrics of this empyreal song—sublimely rendered by the choir—lifted listeners above clouds and storms, up to the very presence of the Divine. 

In their final number, “The Poet Sings” by Randall Stroope, In Jubilo again took flight, soaring above ugly and destructive storms of life not on an airplane’s wings but rather through a poet’s visionary aspirations.  In notes of sincere yearning for a better world, the choir sang of all that future generations might become if inspired by radiant dreams expressed by brave voices.

As an amusing change of pace, the last number before the intermission brought all three choirs together (under the direction of Jackie Riddle-Jackson) for a facetious break from serious and storm-focused solemnity.   In singing Henry Mollicone’s playful “National Weather Forecast,”  the four score singers from the three ensembles joined in a delightful send-up of the quasi-scientific ritual of weather forecasting.   Their mischievous parody hilariously culminated in a mock paean of praise for California’s mild and sunny weather, free from the storms that fill skies elsewhere.  With all of the singers quickly donning sunglasses for the final measures, this puckish number left listeners chuckling at intermission.    

Far from California, storm clouds gathered again after intermission for Tchaikovsky’s tempestuous “Storm Overture.”  Performed not by a chorus but by the instrumentalists of the Orchestra of Southern Utah, this magnificent composition reminded listeners that Toscanini is not the only conductor who can draw song from an orchestra.  With the passion that has become his much-beloved trademark, OSU director Xun Sun led the orchestra in an instrumental song weaving the voices of strings, brass, reeds, and percussion in an irresistible outpouring, electric with all of the energy of a summer squall.  Beginning with the deep brooding of a storm in gestation, this number repeatedly erupts with the blinding brilliance of lightening, the awe-inspiring crash of thunder.  As the warring elements relax, the orchestra subdues its song in tranquil and pacific interludes, only to break forth again with majestic violence.  The amazed audience could only marvel that this particular Tchaikovsky number has received relatively  little attention and give thanks that it did so on this particular storm-and-song filled night.

For its second number, the orchestra tuned its many voices to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas, a work based on a ballad by Goethe and made famous through its cinema dramatization in Walt Disney’s Fantasia.  But as this number unfolded the story of a hapless apprentice who unwittingly lets loose a great storm of untethered magic, the audience realizes this is no Mickey Mouse challenge for the orchestral voices tasked with singing its musical narrative.  Just ask the bassoon section, who ably carried a challenging thematic solo through a key passage of the work!  But praise for the musical achievement of playing this number belongs to more than the bassoonists: the entire orchestra—drums, horns, strings, and reeds—sang their parts at perfect pitch and tempo even as that tempo tightened as the apprentice’s misappropriated spell spun completely out of control.  Indeed, the very loss of control that unleashes a flood when the apprentice’s enchanted broom and bucket run amuck demands ever-more complete control by the musicians blending their instrumental voices to sing the increasingly frenetic musical story.   Under Sun’s ever-poised baton, the OSU musicians achieved and maintained that difficult degree of control.

The orchestra melded their instrumental singing in a final number perhaps even more intensely difficult: “Lion Dance” by Yiping Wang, which plunged the audience into the maelstrom of intense human activity requisite to enact the mysterious Middle Kingdom’s traditional mimicry of the wild pouncing of the world’s fiercest predator.  Believed to bring good fortune to those who perform and behold it, the musical version of this stormy dance mesmerized listeners with its Tarantella-like cadence, sustained first by oboe, then viola, then clarinet, then French horn, then trumpet in a tense interplay of piquantly contrasting instrumental songs. The sheer pleasure of hearing this marvelous interplay convinced those in the audience that this Lion Dance had indeed ushered in good fortune--to them as listeners.  

After a day and evening of showers, the night skies were clear over the Heritage Center as concert-goers departed.  But all were very grateful for the musical storms that had swept its stage, and for the songs--vocal and instrumental--that conveyed all the revivifying power of those storms.  Those in attendance also appreciated the Recreation Arts and Parks tax which had underwritten the concert, so allowing area music lovers of limited means to share in that refreshing power.   The abiding attraction of an orchestra ever ready to sing whether it be about storms or some other theme amply ensures that most of those in the audience this night will be back for the “Timeless Drama” of OSU’s November concert.  

      
Combined choirs

OSU President Harold Shirley introduces the music.

Orchestra of Southern Utah by Gia Miller.
    


Friday, October 5, 2018

"Stormy Highlights" Opens Orchestra Concert Season




            “There is peace even in the storm,” said Vincent Van Gogh. The Orchestra of Southern Utah is set to explore the excitement and drama of musical storms on Thursday, Oct. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Heritage Center complete with three community choirs: Red Rock Singers, Master Singers Men’s Chorus, and In Jubilo (A Women’s Chorale).

Choral works open the beginning of this exciting concert and feature songs showcasing the textures, emotions and stories inspired by stormy weather.

The Master Singers will perform a classic American song “Stormy Weather” by Harold Arlen and arranged by Hal Campbell.  The “Snow Legend” by American composer Joseph Clokey is based on a text by Anna Temple and arranged by Caroleen Lee.  Alan Lee directs the Master Singers with Danny Hansen as pianist.

            Red Rock Singers will perform “Rainsong” by Houston Bright and “The Wisdom of the Moon” by Susan La Barr.  The local choir is directed by Keith Bradshaw with Tracey Bradshaw as pianist.

            In Jubilo sings a dramatic “Famine Song” composed by Vida and “The Poet Sings” by Stroope.  Take a journey with “High Flight” as it recaptures a test flight from 1941 in poetry by John Magee. It is one of the most famous aviation poems ever written.  Jackie Riddle-Jackson serves as In Jubilo director.  Teresa Redd serves as pianist.

             Jackie Riddle Jackson brings these dynamic choirs together to join voices and sing the “National Weather Forecast” by Henry Mollicone a piece that is sure to entertain.
           
The Orchestra of Southern Utah will be performing the second half under the direction of Xun Sun opening with the familiar Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas. Based on a poem by Goethe and popularized with Mickey Mouse, this is a musical adventure complete with crashing percussion and exacting woodwind passages. OSU also performs the dramatic Storm Overture by Tchaikovsky inspired by a play written in 1864. The composer was just 24 years old when he wrote it and this early work portends the dramatic orchestrations yet to come that we are so familiar with.  The final orchestra piece is a Lion Dance by Yiping Wang. For thousands of years the Chinese have performed the Lion Dance for auspicious occasions, with the powerful lion chasing away evil and bringing good fortune. Enjoy the colors and pulsing rhythms depicted in this traditional Chinese piece.

Major sponsors for this concert is the RAP Fund for Recreation, Arts and Parks through Cedar City.  “OSU thanks all financial supporters for making it possible for us to present live music,” said Rebekah Hughes, OSU Manager.

The Concert takes place on October 11 at the Heritage Center (105 North 100 East, Cedar City) begins at 7:30 pm.  Children over 6 are welcome with adult supervision. No babies please as the concert is recorded. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for students. Season Tickets (Soiree Included) cost $45. Tickets are available now by either phone (435-592-6051) or by purchase at Heritage Center/Festival Hall.

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October 11, 2017: Stormy Highlights by OSU at 7:30 pm
Heritage Theater: 105 N 100 E
Tickets- $12 Adults and $6 Students. Groups up to 6 $40.

More information:
Rebekah Hughes
Phone: (435) 592-6051

(poster design by Rollan Fell of the Print Shoppe)

Listening previews:  Click here to hear some of the music.