Carylee Zwang, Music Director and Conductor
“I’d like to give a special thanks to Cedar and the surrounding communities for their incredible support of our Rock Gold concerts. We LOVE creating shows that you love to attend. I personally want to spotlight the incredible amount of talent that I shared the stage with in Thursday’s performance. We are surrounded by a community of artists that are so amazing! Thank you for sharing your talents with us. We hope to see you all out at the next concert!”
"Epic" Rock Gold 2 Concert
by Sara Penny
"It was a feast for the ears and eyes," said David Jordan about the recent Orchestra of Southern Utah Concert. Lights, fog, choir, full symphony orchestra, and dancers added layers of both musical and visual energy. Carylee Zwang conducted the concert and was hailed as "epic" and "hands down the COOLEST" by concertgoers.
Jordan is the OSU Assistant Conductor and he reported that several of his middle school band students attended. "They were so excited to tell me at school today that they saw me performing in the concert! They all loved it! They said it was the best concert ever!" said Jordan. "The vocalists were all great and fun! I especially liked Mark McGahan's voice on Bohemian Rhapsody," he said.
Guest musicians included ten vocalists as well as a rock band. Lori Ransom commented on Stan Szczesny's guitar solos that he "rocked the house."
Having the lighting effects and fog added to the party atmosphere. Nine community dancers added even more exuberance to the popular music by Dolly Parton, ABBA, and Metallica. Torri Adams and Shellee Younkin choreographed the dances.
The Southern Utah University Concert Choir plus members of Opus and Luminosa were directed by Dr. Andrew Briggs. The 75 voices also added rock worthy excitement to add to the atmosphere.
Briggs also served as one of the narrators for "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" with Savannah Billeter. The fiddle soloist was Lindsay Szczesny and as Jordan said, "I was blown away with her fiddle solo and the audience really got into it." This is a piece that has been requested for years so OSU was pleased to finally perform it.
The Heritage Center staff was fully on board with all of the extra logistical work involved with multiple vocalists. Several monitors had to be used so the conductor and soloists could coordinate the intricate timing and entrances. The orchestra was instructed to follow "Bob", Zwang's baton, which paid off on several tricky tempo changes.
A big part of an exciting performance is the reaction of the audience. The feedback propels the musicians and at this concert the sold out audience was extremely enthusiastic. "We so appreciate the phenomenal support of the community for our orchestra," said Amy Gold, OSU manager.
Jane Ricigliano Tab-Fell summed up the evening with her comment that the concert was "outstanding, not a boring moment the whole evening. Carylee was superb and her energy is unbelievable! Great choice of music and performers." See the previous blog post for the program as well as the soloist photos and bios.
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