FARMINGTON – The University of Maine at Farmington Community Orchestra will present its Winter Concert at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 12 in Nordica Auditorium, UMF Merrill Hall. The 35-piece ensemble includes UMF students, staff and community members.
The program will feature the premiere of a new octet composed by Philip Carlsen, UMF professor of music. Best known recently in the Farmington area for his automobile orchestra compositions, as well as the toy piano music he wrote for the fairies in the Sandy River Players’ “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Carlsen returns to more conventional instrumental forces with this octet.
The piece’s title, “East by Northeast,” is an acknowledgement of the inspiration Carlsen took from traditional scales of Java and Japan, although many of the harmonies and other musical materials are more reminiscent of jazz and contemporary Western concert music. The instrumentation is entirely for wind instruments, providing a nice contrast with the string orchestra piece that follows—a fugue by Robert Kechley on the traditional carol, “Lo, how a Rose e’er Bloooming.”
For the remainder of the program, conductor Trond Saeverud has chosen one of Rossini’s most beloved overtures, “The Thieving Magpie” (“La gazza ladra”), and the Symphony No. 6 by Antonin Dvorak. Violinist and conductor Saeverud has performed as soloist with major orchestras in Europe and the U.S., including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center in New York City. He is the concertmaster of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and founding director of the Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra.
The concert is open to the public and tickets are available at the door the night of the performance at $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, and free for children under 12 and UMF students with I.D. For more information, please contact the UMF Department of Sound, Performance and Visual Inquiry at 207-778-7072, or robin.palmermosher@maine.edu.
