LSO opens season with special guest
By Casey Gillis on Aug. 27, 2008
From staff reports
One of Lynchburg’s favorite sons is returning to the Hill City for the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra’s season opener.
Astronaut Leland Melvin, who went up in the Space Shuttle Atlantis in February, is taking part in “The Great American Concert,” scheduled for 8 p.m. Sept. 6 in the E.C. Glass High School auditorium.
“It’s not every day we get to have a guest artist from Houston by way of the International Space Station,“ says Rick Piester, LSO’s executive director.
Melvin will narrate a piece the orchestra did during its very first concert 25 years ago: Aaron Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait,” the American composer’s tribute to the 16th president. The work uses material from Lincoln’s speeches and letters, and also quotes folk songs of the period.
Well-known actors like Katharine Hepburn, Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston have narrated performances of the piece, and U.S. Senator John Warner narrated LSO’s first performance in October 1983.
“This is a very powerful, touching work,” LSO conductor Bruce Habitzruther says in a press release. “It leaves hardly a dry eye in the audience.”
The concert will also feature works by Duke Ellington and other American composers.
And that’s only the beginning for LSO’s 25th season, which is aimed at spotlighting local talent and will include two more concerts with the orchestra, two intimate evenings with special guests and a cabaret-style big band fundraiser and dance.
Here’s what’s on the calendar for the upcoming season:
Lynchburg-based singers Marcia Thom and Paddy Dougherty will collaborate on “Christmas and Candlelight,” an evening of holiday music to benefit LSO. It is scheduled for Dec. 23.
Hill City native Elizabeth Coulter Vonderheide, a solo violinist and current associate principal second violin of the Norfolk-based Virginia Symphony Orchestra, will join LSO for a program of favorite Baroque-era music on March 21.
International pianist Leon Bates, who performed with LSO two years ago, is scheduled to return in May for two performances: “American Originals,” a journey through the music of American composers from different eras, styles and backgrounds, set for May 7, and “Brahms for Moms,” a dinner-concert on Mother’s Day, May 10.
“Get Down Tonight,” set for Nov. 15, is a tribute to Motown music from the 1960s and 1970s, and will be a concert, dance and fundraiser.
IF YOU’RE GOING:
WHAT: The Great American Concert
WHEN: 8 p.m. Sept. 6
WHERE: E.C. Glass High School auditorium
TICKETS: $20 for adults and $7 for students. Children 12 and younger get in free with an accompanying adult ticket holder.
INFO: (434) 845-6604 or http://www.lynchburgsymphony.com.
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