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After cancelling our March 27 concert and all summer performances due to COVID-19, Chamber Orchestra Ogden is back in business for our Ten-Year Anniversary fall concert. On September 26 we will perform at Peery’s Egyptian Theater at 7:30 p.m.
Due to the continuing problems with COVID-19 we are going to following some strict guidelines to make this one-hour performance a reality. First, the orchestra will be a string orchestra with only 22 stringed instruments and harpsichord, which will be played on our new Clavinova, which we were able to purchase last season thanks to our generous donors.. The reason for this is spacing is to keep the musicians safe. Each musician will be one on a stand, and each stand will be placed 6 feet away from the others. All musicians will wear face masks through the entire concert.
The theater will also be implementing safe spacing procedures and mask requirements to assure the safety of the audience.
There is an amazing amount of great music available for string orchestra, and we have chosen to play a concert of music that is always popular with orchestra audiences. Put on your western hats and get ready to listen to our opening Hoedown, written by Aaron Copland as a part of his well-known ballet “Rodeo.” Then we move into some music that was written by a 12 year old. Felix Mendelssohn actually wrote his 12 String Symphonies between the ages of 12 and 14. They are outstanding examples of Mendelssohn’s genius. We are going to play the String Symphony No. 1 in C.
Edvard Grieg wrote the next two short pieces. These two Elegiac Melodies are just that. Simple and sublime, the music will lull you into relaxing, but the underlying tension of the moving lines will keep you from dozing.
Molly on the Shore is an arrangement of two Irish reels. This four minute piece will perk you right up after the relaxation brought about by the previous two pieces.
Peggy Wheelwright, the orchestra’s concertmaster, is the violin soloist for the next piece. Spring is the first of four concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, collectively titled The Four Seasons. It’s part of a larger work totaling twelve concertos titled “Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione,” (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention). There is a set of sonnets that accompany the concertos of The Four seasons. When you attend the concert you can read the sonnets that accompany Spring in the program. In a true chicken or egg quandary, musicologists are not certain if the concertos were written to accompany the sonnets, or vice versa. It’s widely believed, though not certain, that Vivaldi himself wrote the sonnets.
Our final piece for the evening, Serenade in G, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525, is one of thirteen serenades that Mozart wrote. The title is translated from the German as “A little Night Music,” and as such is a perfect ending for an evening of music.
As always COO wishes to recognize the Egyptian Theater for its support of the orchestra’s concerts in this great venue.
Tickets for this concert go on sale September 1. They are $8.00 and are available by phone at 801-689-8700, or in person at the Egyptian Theater box office M-F from 10 am to 6 pm. They may also be purchased online at https://tickets.egyptiantheaterogden.com/tickets As always active military, veterans, and their families are admitted without charge to all COO concerts, as are students ages 8-18.
Well-behaved children 8 and older are welcome to attend the concert.
For more information please visit our website: https://chamberorchestraogden.org, our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ChamberOrchestraOgden/ or contact Michael Palumbo at contactchamberorchestraogden@gmail.com, 801-624-9232. Follow us on Twitter at @ogdenmusic and Instagram chamberorchestraogden.
COO is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. We extend our grateful thanks to Weber County RAMP, Ogden City, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation, the Stewart Foundation, The Richard K. and Shirley S. Hemingway Foundation, Utah Arts and Museums, and our wonderful individual donors, for their support.