Concert Season
Past Concerts
Concert Season
Masterworks Series III ~ OUR FUTURE
Kelowna Community Theatre, Saturday, January 23, 8:00 p.m.
Vernon Performing Arts Centre, Sunday, January 24, 7:00 p.m.
Celebrating fifty years of classical music in the Okanagan Valley means celebrating our youth, especially those who study and stay here, going on to perform in a professional capacity on local stages. Young people who study music excel in many areas of their lives, both as young students, and throughout their careers and other endeavours. In "Our Future" the orchestra celebrates the youth of our community in a number of ways. The OSO will be joined onstage by the Youth Symphony of the Okanagan for this concert.
Program:
Child Play,Stephen Gellman
Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043 [Vivace; Largo ma non Tanto; Allegro], Johann Sebastian Bach
The Songs of the Lights [Song of the Stars; The Sower; The Sun is a Luminous Shield; Daybreak Song], Imant Raminsh
Concerto for Timpani & Strings, [Bachroque; Aria; Horse Ride], Ney Rosauro
Guest Artists: Alicia Venables, violin; Colleen Venables, violin; Candesca Vocal Ensemble, Alexandra Babbel, Director; Dominique Bernath, timpani
Celebrated Canadian Composer Gellman wrote Child Play under a commission from the CBC, and it premiered in 1992 under the baton of Simon Streatfield and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.
Concerto for 2 Violins, Strings and Continuo in D Minor (BWV 1043), also known as the Double Violin Concerto, is perhaps one of the most famous works by JS Bach and considered among the best examples of the work of the late Baroque period. Bach wrote it in Leipzig sometime between 1730 and 1731, most likely for the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, of which he was the director. In addition to the two soloists, the concerto is scored for strings and basso continuo. The concerto is characterized by the subtle yet expressive relationship between the violins throughout the work. The musical structure of this piece uses fugal imitation and much counterpoint in three movements.
The first movement is featured in the Woody Allen film Hannah and her Sisters, the second in the film Children of A Lesser God.
Remarkable young violinists Alicia and Colleen Venables have performed onstage with the OSO for several years, as well as playing in the Youth Symphony of the Okanagan. They will be performing this same Bach work with the VSO. We are delighted that we signed them up first! in this same concert year. Both young students are award-winning musicians with outstanding opportunities and careers ahead.
The Songs of the Lights is a set of four movements for treble choir, flute, glockenspiel, and strings, based on Algonquin and Navajo texts, sung in English. This evocative choral and orchestra composition from renowned international choral and orchestral composer Raminsh, Principal Second Violin with the OSO, will be rendered in all its tenderness and evocation by Candesca, the group of young Okanagan-based female singers who toured Europe in the summer of 2008 with their director, Alexandra Babbel.
Rosauro's Concerto for Timpani & Strings is a unique work in three movements exploring the lyrical potential of the timpani. The soloist plays singing melodies rather than drum patterns. Audiences love this challenging work composed in 2003 which is loaded with tuning changes and musicality. Ranging from an homage to Bach, to lyric melodies, to lively ragtime, it is composed by Brazilian percussionist Ney Rosauro, Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Miami. Dominique Bernath, OSO Principal Timpani since 1997, enjoys a vibrant career playing regularly with the Vancouver Symphony, Prince George Symphony, West Coast Symphony, Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and the Willingdon Church Orchestra. Dominique has been involved in many broadcasts for both television and CBC Radio One and Two, and has performed with such talents as Jann Arden, Natalie MacMaster, Anne Murray, Dee Daniels, The Rankins and Holly Cole. She is the Co-Director of the Willingdon Fine Arts Academy
Open dress rehearsal...
Kelowna Community Theatre, from 2-4:30 pm on Saturday, January 23. Admission is free.
Pre-concert talks...
One hour before each mainstage concert (except Christmas and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Experience) our Music Director and Conductor Rosemary Thomson will greet ticket holders with an in-depth discussion and Q&A session on each mainstage concert. Just plan on joining us in the theatre one hour before showtime, and enjoy and learn from this in-depth presentation on that evening's music, compositions, and composers.
Afterthoughts...
In every city, Rosemary invites the concert's guest artist/s to join her onstage post-concert with one or two musicians from the orchestra to share questions and thoughts with the audience.
Concert proudly presented by
