Orchestra photo (above):
Larry Folliott
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Warm greetings from the Stratford Symphony Orchestra.
Con Spirito enables us to carry on a conversation with music lovers in the Stratford community and beyond.
Please feel free to send us an
email with your thoughts or comments.
Send this edition of Con Spirito to your friends.
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Stratford native Allison Lupton
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Celtic Celebration coming Jan. 27
The Allison Lupton Band will be featured, including Allison Lupton (flute and vocal), Shane Cook (fiddle), Denis Rondeau (bass), Ian Bell (guitar, accordion, you name it) and Andrew Collins (mandolin, guitar, fiddle).
Stratford Police Pipes and Drums will also perform.
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Join the SSO volunteer corps
Opportunites galore in all aspects of the orchestra's activities.
For information contact the
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Beautiful music, a champagne toast:
The SSO's New Year in Vienna
The New Year's Day afternoon concert introduced a year ago to the delight of SSO patrons will be reprised to welcome 2018.
New Year in Vienna
will open with Johann Strauss Jr.'s Gypsy Baron Overture (a "barn burner," says SSO Maestro William Rowson, who will conduct) and include the Strauss Jr. favourites Emperor Waltz and Blue Danube, plus his Pleasure Train Polka.
The latter is a nod to Stratford's history with trains, Mr. Rowson explains. "It's one of those polkas that's got bells and whistles and things like that."
See the complete program here.
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Mark Gardner and Catherine Gardner |
Soloists Catherine Gardner, soprano, and Mark Gardner, baritone, will take the program beyond the waltzes and polka with arias from Erich Korngold's Die tote Stadt and Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow, as well as Rudolph Sieczynski's Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume.
A highlight will be a duet from The Merry Widow, Lippen Schweigen, described by Mr. Rowson as "the most beautiful duet ever written."
Though not a part of New Year's tradition, Mr. Rowson says, the operatic selections are not "too far of a stretch," especially since the composition of the orchestra called for by the waltzes lends itself to operatic music as well.
The total program will run about 70 minutes without an intermission, concluding in true Vienna New Year style with Johann Strauss Sr.'s Radetsky March.
At a reception after the concert, Maestro Rowson will offer a champagne toast, and finger food will be served.
The concert, which begins at 3 p.m., will be held in the SSO's new venue, Avondale United Church, 194 Avondale Avenue. It is the third of six concerts in the orchestra's Season 13.
Tickets are available at Fanfare Books and Blowes Stationery in Stratford and at Lyric Flowers in St. Marys, as well as online. Adult: $40; student: $10. Children under 12 are admitted free.
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Tickets going fast
Carols, jazz, pops and goodies
at SSO's Christmas Sing-Along
The SSO's annual Christmas Sing-Along will feature jazz pianist Tim Elliott, vocalist Hannah Thomas and a nine-member contingent of the SSO.
Tickets are going fast for this SSO fundraiser Friday, Dec. 15, at Falstaff Family Centre, 35 Waterloo St., beginning at 7:00 p.m. Only 100 tickets ($20) will be sold.
Refreshments ($5 each) will include sweet and savoury plates, wine and hot cider, as well as baked goods. A pay-for-play ($5) carol sing will allow people to request a group sing of their favourite carols. Tickets are available online or at Fanfare Books or Blowes Stationery.
Tim Elliott is an Anglican priest, leadership and life coach, musician and speaker. He has joined the SSO volunteer corps and serves as vice-chairman of the volunteer leadership team.
Hannah is a high school student "with a voice that knocks your socks off," says her accompanist, SSO board member David Murray. She will sing Mary, Did You Know, All I Want for Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey version) and O Holy Night (arranged by David Foster and Jeremy Lubbock).
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House concert a sellout
The SSO house concert fundraiser
hosted by Geraint Wyn Davies and Claire Lautier December 10 at the home of Jane Homan and Kevin Silver was a sellout (60 tickets). Performers included David Keeley, Valerie Hawkins,
Brent Carver,
Mike Nadajewski, Laura Burton, Kiki Dube and Colin Brisbois.
Many thanks to Pazzo Taverna for donating the food for the event.
Click here to see photos of the event.
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SSO Sponsors and Supporters
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