Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra kicks off season with music of Mozart, Beethoven

The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven will come alive Tuesday inside the Bedell Performance Hall on Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

Under the direction of Sara Edgerton, the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra will perform the music at its gala, season-opening concert, accompanied by guest soloists David Halen and Jonathan Vinocour from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Halen joined the St. Louis orchestra in 1991 and is currently concertmaster of the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colo. He has appeared as a soloist with the St. Louis, San Francisco and Houston symphony orchestras on a regular basis and has been a featured speaker at workshops with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Vinocour joined the St. Louis orchestra in 2007 as principal violist. His festival appearances have included performances in Aspen, Marlboro, Vt., and Tanglewood, Mass.

In 2006 he won first place in the Holland America Music Society and recorded his first solo album.

"People will walk out with a spring in their step," said Edgerton, who also is professor of cello and string bass at Southeast. "While you can access the music of Mozart and Beethoven on the Internet or CD, there's nothing like hearing it live."

The 7:30 p.m. performance will open with Mozart's "Impresario Overture," which was written for the classical composer's 1786 performance in Vienna, Austria.

The second half of the concert will feature Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Written between 1804 and 1808, this piece was first performed in Vienna in December 1808.

Tickets may be purchased by at the River Campus box office, 518 S. Fountain St. in Cape Girardeau, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., by calling 651-2265 or 800-293-5949 or online at metrotix.com, keyword "gala."