The Lamar Civic Orchestra’s inaugural concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the Setzer Student Center Ballroom on the Lamar University campus. The full symphony orchestra, which started rehearsals in September, provides an opportunity for trained musicians from all walks of life to perform together and enrich the community.
The ensemble is conducted by Kurt Gilman, associate professor of music at Lamar. Professional musicians, as well as people from other fields, are welcome. The orchestra currently consists of 50 members. Personnel for the orchestra range from top-notch music majors at Lamar to Lamar alumni and trained music professionals, many of whom are currently teaching in school orchestra and band programs throughout Southeast Texas. The orchestra also consists of talented and trained musicians in other fields of employment, including engineers, medical doctors and surgeons, and an insurance specialist.
Featured works on the program include “Outdoor Overture,” by Aaron Copland; “Four Norwegian Dances for Orchestra,” by Edvard Grieg; Franz Schubert’s “Symphony No. 8 (The ‘Unfinished’)”; and “Finlandia,” by Jean Sibelius.
According to Gilman, the compositions by Copland and Schubert are “youthful ventures.” Copland wrote “Outdoor Overture” on a commission from the High School of Performing Arts in New York City in 1939. Schubert was only 25 years old when he wrote the “Unfinished” Symphony.
The works by Grieg and Sibelius are nationalistic in nature, says Gilman. Grieg’s “Four Norwegian Dances” was originally written in the 1860s for piano four hands (a musical composition for two people to play at one keyboard) as part of a series of works celebrating the folk heritage of Norway. These dances were later orchestrated by Hans Sitt, a famous nineteenth century violinist and pedagogue. Sibelius’s “Finlandia” is a tone poem, written during the Russian occupation of Finland. Today it is considered a “hymn of independence” for the Finnish people.
This premiere concert by the Lamar Civic Orchestra is free and open to the public. For questions or more information about the concert, contact the Lamar Music Department at (409) 880-8144 or (409) 880-8077.
