WIND SYMPHONY PERFORMS ON THE CAPE RIVERFRONT JULY 14-15

The American Wind Symphony Orchestra is returning to Cape Girardeau in July for its seventh appearance on the Mississippi River waterfront. Its last appearance in Cape was in 1988.

The Pittsburgh-based orchestra performs a variety of classical and popular music, some especially commissioned for the orchestra.

It plays aboard a one-of-a-kind, specially-designed, self-propelled, $4 million floating performing arts center named the Motor Vessel Point Counterpoint II that was built in 1976.

The audience sits in lawn chairs or cushions on the riverbank as they listen to the concert.

Susan Neszpaul, orchestra manager, said the American Wind Symphony at Point Counterpoint II will be in Cape Girardeau July 14-15, for a two-day residency that will include a series of 30-45 minute, mini-concerts around the area. It will conclude with a public concert on the waterfront July 15.

Neszpaul said many of the musicians in the orchestra stay with host families while Point Counterpoint II is docked in a community.

The musicians travel from city to city in minivans, while the orchestra's floating performance center is piloted to each town by master pilot Robert A. Boudreau, who founded the orchestra 38 years ago and serves as its conductor.

Boudreau is also described in a recent orchestra program as a "showboat captain, teacher, music editor, farmer, indefatigable advocate and champion of contemporary music, showman and champion of big dreams."

Neszpaul said, "We're looking for local families who would like to host one of our young musicians while we are in Cape Girardeau. They are about 23 years of age, and many of them are just starting their professional music career. Ideally, we'd like to find a family with children who are learning to play a musical instrument. If someone would like to host one of our musicians, they should contact Dr. Dan Cotner at 335-8533."

Neszpaul said other musicians in the orchestra are faculty members at colleges and universities who travel on tour with the orchestra during the summer months. "Most are not full-time musicians. They simply enjoy the experience of touring with other musicians, and playing in concert on this unique floating performing arts center," she said.

While in Cape Girardeau last week, Neszpaul was also arranging for local sponsors for the two-day residency of the orchestra. All of the musical performances are free of charge, thanks to the local and national sponsors who underwrite the cost of the orchestra.

"This is very important to us. We want to try to reach as many people as possible to introduce them to the fine art of music," Neszpaul said. "Too often, families with children do not have the extra money to attend a symphony concert.

"By introducing children to classical music at an early age, they develop a taste for this type of music as they grow. Being a mobile orchestra with local sponsors makes it a very effective way to bring this type of music to communities who live along our inland rivers."

In addition to performing in communities along the inland waterways and the intercoastal waterway from Texas to the east coast, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra is also a world-touring orchestra. In 1989, the orchestra began a three-year, 11-country tour of the United Kingdom, Europe, the Scandinavian counties, and Russia.

Neszpaul said the Point Counterpoint II was loaded aboard ship and transported to Rotterdam, Holland, where it was placed back in the water to begin its lengthy tour that included stops in London, Paris, Hamburg, Norway, Sweden and St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Russia.

The orchestra begins its 1994 season with concerts on the Monongahela River, in southern Pennsylvania. From there, the orchestra will play in Ohio River communities in West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Before coming to Cape Girardeau, the orchestra will perform in Metropolis, Ill.

After leaving Cape Girardeau, the orchestra will travel to New Athens, Ill., where they will preform aboard Point Counterpoint II while it is docked on the Kaskaskia River. From there, they will continue up the Mississippi River to communities in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Hopefully, Old Man River will cooperate in July when the orchestra visits Cape Girardeau. When it was here in 1988, high water and debris in the river prevented Capt. Boudreau from bringing the Point Counterpart II up river from Cairo. Instead, the orchestra's main performance had to be moved to Capaha Park.