Cape Central orchestra to perform at River Campus

Cape Central Junior High and High School students will join forces with the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, March 1, for the "Serenade for Strings" concert of music written for string orchestras. Featured during the first half of the program will be special guest artist, Juliette Buchanan, harp soloist, performing music by Debussy and Grandjany. The second half of the program will feature the Cape Central High School Orchestra, the Cape Central High School Freshman Orchestra, and the Cape Central Junior High School Eighth Grade Orchestra performing music by Bach, Meyer, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Conductors for this concert will be Dr. Sara Edgerton, Artistic Director of the Southeast Missouri Symphony, and Mr. Steve Schaffner, Director of Orchestras at the Cape Central Junior and Senior High Schools.

The concert will open with the Holberg Suite for String Orchestra by the noted Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg. Written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Norwegian playwright Ludvig Holberg, this suite is an enchanting combination of Baroque dance forms with the intensified harmonies and expression of the Romantic era. Also on the first half of the program will be the beautiful, lyrical Serenade for Strings, a youthful and joyous work by the great English composer, Sir Edward Elgar.

Guest artist Juliette Buchanan will join the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra in two glorious works for harp and string orchestra: the Aria in Classical Style by the great harp player and composer, Marcel Grandjany; and Debussy's famous Danses ("Dances") for harp and strings. Juliette Buchanan, a native of Dallas, Texas, has appeared as soloist and principal harpist with numerous symphony orchestras in Texas. Highlights from Ms. Buchanan's orchestral playing include an appearance as a soloist at the White House, and an appearance in Carnegie Hall with the Peabody Camerata. Ms. Buchanan received a BM degree in Harp Performance from the Peabody Conservatory and a MM degree in Harp Performance from Rice University where she studied with Paula Page. In addition, Ms. Buchanan spent eight summers at the prestigious Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine studying with the renowned Alice Chalifoux, retired principal harpist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Ms. Buchanan lives in McKinney, Texas with her husband Mark Rutledge, son of the late Dr. Harley Rutledge, Professor Emeritus of Physics at SEMO.

On the second half of the concert, the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra will be joined by the Cape Central Orchestras in works by Bach, Meyer, and Vaughan Williams. The Cape Central High School Orchestra will perform the first movement of Bach's vibrant Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. Next, the High School Orchestra will be joined by the Southeast Missouri Symphony players in a side-by-side performance of the energetic contemporary work, Mantras, by Californian composer Richard Meyer.

For the final piece on the program, the Cape Central High School Orchestra, the Cape Central Freshman Orchestra, and the Cape Central Junior High School Eighth Grade Orchestra will join the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra to perform the beautiful Concerto Grosso for multiple string orchestras by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. This work was commissioned for the 21st anniversary of the Rural Schools Association in England, and was first performed by a massed orchestra of young players in the Royal Albert Hall, London, in November 1950. It is designed for multiple orchestras including the "Concertino Orchestra, " "Tutti Orchestra," and additional "Ad Lib" parts. For this performance, over 150 string players, from eighth grade through college and adult, will join forces to make glorious music together.

There will also be a pre-concert talk given in the Bedell Performance Hall at 6:45 pm on Tuesday, March 1, by Department of Music faculty member Paul Thompson. This event is free to all ticket holders of that evening's concert.

Tickets for this concert are now on sale and can be purchased by contacting the River Campus Box Office at 573-651-2265.