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.
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Final concert:
Canada, eh?
Celebrating Canadian theatre music
Saturday
May 14
7:30 p.m.
Performers:
Claire Lautier
Shane Carty
Barbara
Dunn-Prosser
Monique Lund
Featuring a medley from Anne of Green Gables, songs from Festival Shakespeareproductions by Bert Carriere and selections from Rick Fox's Cyrano
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| Volunteers needed for SSO activities
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SSO board president Katharine Rajczak has announced a $6,500 grant to the SSO from the City of Stratford.
"We're absolutely delighted to receive this grant and are most grateful for the city's continuing support of the orchestra," Ms. Rajczak told Con Spirito.
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Snapd
OnSite Technology
Stratford Live
Quinlan Road
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Mozart, Brahms, Strauss in SSO 'Spring Classics'
Sandra Mogensen is guest soloist
The Stratford Symphony Orchestra will perform major works by Mozart and Brahms, as well as a shorter piece by Strauss, on Saturday, April 9, in "Spring Classics," the fifth of six concerts in Season 11.
The concert will open with Richard Strauss's
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Strauss |
Serenade for winds, written when Strauss (not the waltz composer) had just turned 17. It will show off the orchestra's flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and tuba, whose skills SSO conductor William Rowson especially praised in a recent interview with Con Spirito.
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Sandra Mogensen will be guest soloist in Mozart's
Piano Concerto No. 23 in D Major. Ms. Mogensen is a former Stratford resident now based in Toronto.
Mozart completed this concerto in 1786 during a five-year period when he composed 15 of his 27 solo piano concertos.
"The slow movement is one of the most touching and melancholic
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Mozart |
movements Mozart wrote," says maestro Rowson. "Its principal theme is stated directly by the soloist and is then taken up by the orchestra, with its beautiful suspensions being carried by the winds. ... This movement is quietly heartbreaking, nowhere more so than in its final moments."
Brahms's Symphony No. 2 in D Major "is one of my all-time favourites," says Mr. Rowson. "
Brahms was a great 'DNA' composer, and nowhere is this more evident than the opening movement of the second symphony.
"The musical strand from which everything is spun is quietly stated
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Brahms |
in the opening bars by the cellos and basses. Brahms achieves a remarkable amount of variety and interest out of these three little notes, spinning melody after melody, yet they all somehow manage to be tied to home base."
The concert, at Knox Presbyterian Church on Saturday, April 9, begins at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are available at Fanfare Books, Blowes Stationery (downtown) and Lyric Flowers (St. Marys), as well as on the SSO website. Tickets are $40 for adults and $10 for students (with a valid ID). Children 12 and under are admitted free.
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Concerto competition entries close April 15
The entry deadline for the 2016 SSO Emerging Artist Concerto Competition is Friday, April 15.
This year the competition is open to performers on standard orchestral woodwind, brass and percussion instruments and will be held on Saturday, April 23. Entrants must fall within age range of 15 to 24 years as of April 23.
Click here to see the competition regulations and entry form. Inquiries should be directed to David Spence, competition co-ordinator: 519-271-0446; 1-866-921-0069 (toll-free); 519-498-4859 (cell).
The winner will perform with the SSO in April 2017.
Laura Duffy, soprano, won the 2015 competition, which focused on classical voice. As winner, she performed with the orchestra earlier this season, singing arias from Puccini, Bellini and Gounod.
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Season 12 launch party May 10 at Revival House
The SSO will announce its 2016-2017 concert lineup Tuesday, May 10, at a launch party sponsored by Revival House.
Stratford Festival actors Claire Lautier and Shane Carty, who will sing in the season's concert finale May 14, will be in attendance, as will Dayna Manning of the groupTrent Severn, who will perform with the SSO next season. SSO principal conductor William Rowson will comment on highlights of the coming season and meet and greet SSO supporters.
Revival House, at the corner of Waterloo and Brunswick streets, will provide refreshments, including food and wine, for the event, which begins at 5 p.m.
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Two SSO fundraiser brunches set for April, May
Two brunch concerts are coming up this spring, one on Sunday, April 24, and one on Sunday, May 15, both at Revival House.
The May 15 event will feature winners of the Kiwanis music competition. Arrangements for the April 24 program are not yet complete.
The brunches begin at 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $40 (a $20 donation receipt will be provided).
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I'll bet I could be a conductor!
What does a conductor do anyhow, besides wave that stick at the orchestra?
That will be the subject of the SSO Cushion Concert on Sunday, May 6, when principal conductor William Rowson will explain why an orchestra needs that stick-waving person on the podium.
Bring the family to this interactive concert experience at Gallery Stratford, 54 Romeo Street S., from 2 to 3 p.m. Admission is $20 per family (or $10 for an adult and $5 for a child).
Tickets
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Rowson chosen for two-year residency with VSO
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Rowson |
William Rowson, in his first season as principal conductor of the SSO, has accepted a two-year residency as assistant conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Rowson will remain in his position with the SSO. A guest conductor, to be announced at the Season 12 launch May 10, will share the podium with Mr. Rowson in the upcoming season.
"We are pleased for Bill that he will have such an exciting opportunity and delighted that he will continue next year as our principal conductor," said Katharine Rajczak, SSO board president.
More about the appointment.
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