Mercer University Orchestra prepares for last performance of the year
Image: Photo provided by Patty Crowe
The Mercer University Orchestra will have their final performance of the year on April 28 in Fickling Hall at 7:30 p.m.
April 27, 2017
The Mercer University Orchestra will have their final performance of the year April 28. The group will be performing Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” and “Divertimento for Strings” by Curtis Bryant.
Amy Moretti, Director of the McDuffie Center for Strings, said in an email, “The Vivaldi ‘Four Seasons’ is such a famous work in the classical repertoire. We thought it would be wonderful to feature each of the violin students as soloists in a movement from this piece that depicts the seasons in such a vivid way.”
“The Four Seasons” is a work of four violin concerti that was premiered in 1721.
Moretti said when you hear the piece it is as if “you hear the birds chirping in Spring and the bugs and oppressive heat of Summer.”
Moretti said she believed it was important to play music by living composers which is why they chose “Divertimento for Strings” by Bryant as their second piece. The composer Curtis Bryant will be in attendance at the concert.
The concert will be conducted by Ward Stare. Stare is a highly recognized conductor who has been described by the St. Louis Post Dispatch as “one of the hottest young conductors in America.”
As well as conducting at Mercer, Stare has conducted pieces for the Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, Québec Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony.
Stare has been responsible for leading the group’s rehearsals in the weeks leading up to the concert.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. on April 28 in Fickling Hall.
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