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The Northwest Civic Orchestra culminates the 2017-18 season Saturday, April 28, with a 7 p.m. concert in the Nelson Performing Arts Auditorium.
Maurine Akin, NWC violin instructor, will conduct the orchestra’s performance of an eclectic mix of compositions celebrating this year’s concert theme of “The Spirit of Spring,” a phrase borrowed from Schumann as he described his “Symphony No. 1,” which concludes the evening's performance.
After the beginning orchestra performs “Simple Gifts” from “Appalachian Spring,” the orchestra opens with the always popular “American Salute” by Morton Gould, a variation on the American Civil War song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”
Gould, a child prodigy who first published at age six, wrote the piece for a radio program overnight. He sat down to work at 6 p.m. with copyists standing by, and his music was on stands the next morning and broadcast that same evening.
Known for evoking feelings of a sunrise, the orchestra will then perform Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite No. 1,” which includes “Morning” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” followed by the finale from Resphigi's “The Pines of Rome.”
The second half of the program will feature Schumann’s “Spring Symphony.” Written in a similar fashion to “American Salute,” this much longer work was also composed in a short amount of time. Schumann sketched the entire work in four days and had it orchestrated less than a month later.
Immediately following the concert, the audience is invited to a reception in the Nelson Performing Arts Center to meet the students and musicians from around the area who combine their talents to perform in choir and orchestra concerts each spring and fall.
General admission to the concert is $10 for adults and $5 for senior citizens. NWC students and children 12 and under are admitted free.
For Northwest College’s full calendar of events, visit http://nwc.edu/events/.