Mukilteo orchestra covers great American composers
Published 6:12 pm Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The Mukilteo Community Orchestra pays tribute to the great body of work from American composers with a free concert of Americana Sunday.
The concert will feature the music of American composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, George Gershwin and Ferde Grofe.
There’s also a preconcert performance with the orchestra teaming up with The Everett Chorale to present a vocal presentation of these classics.
“Our concert is, of course, a performance of just some of the highlights from the great body of work from American composers,” said Trevor Lutzenhiser, the orchestra’s artistic director and conductor.
“But these are really classics … My hope is that we can continue this kind of event, bringing to audiences more of these great American works.”
Concert selections include “Fanfare for the Common Man” and “Variations on a Shaker Melody,” written by Copland. Copland’s pieces date to the World War II years. “Fanfare” was designed to motivate and inspire the nation in its war effort in 1943. While “Variations” was written in 1956 and is an excerpt from the award-winning ballet, “Appalachian Spring,” which Copland wrote in 1944, according to a press release.
The somber anthem of loss and grief, “Adagio for Strings,” was written by Barber in 1938 as the world edged toward war.
A medley from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” will include pieces from the popular opera written in 1935 and arranged by John Whitney: “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “Summertime,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin,’” “Bess, You is My Woman Now” and “There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York.”
The concert will conclude with Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite,” including the movements “Sunrise,” “The Painted Desert,” “On the Trail,” “Sunset” and “Cloudburst.” The five movements take the audience through a typical desert day interrupted with the sounds of a traveler and his burro descending a trail with sharp hoof beats making a rhythmic background to the cowboy’s song.
The selection ends with a desert storm, complete with thunder and a cloudburst, according to a press release.
“Americana” begins at 2 p.m. Sunday, with a preconcert performance with the Everett Chorale at 1:30 p.m., at the Rosehill Community Center, 304 Lincoln Ave., Mukilteo.
The concert is free. For more information call 425-263-8180 or go to www.mukilteoorchestra.org.
Theresa Goffredo; 425-339-3424; tgoffredo@heraldnet.com
