The Southeast Missouri Symphony will present its Gala Season opening concert on Tuesday, Oct. 12, in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall on the River Campus at Southeast Missouri State University.
The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Face coverings are required.
The first half of the program will feature a performance of the ever-popular “Peter and the Wolf” with full symphony orchestra and live narration. This work was written in 1936 with the aim of introducing instruments of the orchestra to children while telling a story about Peter, a young boy who encounters various animals while out in the woods. Peter is represented by the strings, a bird by the flute, a duck by the oboe, a cat by the clarinet, a wolf by the French horn and hunters by percussion instruments. Composer Sergei Prokofiev skillfully weaves the storyline with characteristic tunes and themes to create an engaging event for children and adults alike. This work has received many performances and recordings and is one of the most well-known and frequently performed of all classical works. It gained additional fame after its 1946 Walt Disney film adaptation.
During the second half of the concert, the orchestra will perform “Four Characteristic Waltzes” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a British and African composer. Written in 1899 for full orchestra, these dances evoke the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods in England. Coleridge-Taylor was a successful composer in both Britain and the United States. His cantata “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” was popular in his lifetime and continues to entertain modern audiences. The concert will conclude with the colorful “Carmen Suite No. 1,” a famous orchestral suite from “Carmen,” an opera by French composer Georges Bizet.
Dr. Sara Edgerton, conductor of the Southeast Missouri State University Symphony, said she looks forward to leading the symphony orchestra in performances of well-known and dramatic tunes.
She said, “We are very excited about our upcoming Gala Season opening concert. This program will include exciting, colorful and enjoyable music for symphony orchestra. It will be very appealing to our audience.”
Tickets
Tickets may be purchased by contacting the River Campus Box Office, located in the Cultural Arts Center, 518 S. Fountain St., weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., by calling (573) 651-2265, or online at RiverCampus.org.