ISSUED: 6 April 2018
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s Community Music will present the Shepherd Community Orchestra, Junior String Ensemble, and Shepherd Youth Chorus in concert at the Frank Center Theater on Wednesday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m.
The Junior String Ensemble, under the direction of Shepherd alumna Renee Shaw, will perform “Hunter’s Chorus,” Mozart’s, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” and “Edelweiss” from “The Sound of Music.” The Junior String Ensemble is made up of string players in third grade through high school.
The Shepherd Youth Chorus, celebrating its 10th season under the direction of Dr. David Gonzol, director of music education, will perform “Risseldy Rosseldy,” arranged by Jay Broeker; “77 Two-Part Exercises, Nos. 1 & 2” by Zoltán Kodály; “Kalenda Maya” by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras; “Orpheus and His Lute” by Ralph Vaughan Williams from William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, act 3, scene 1; and “No. 40. Old Angus McTavish” by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman from Music for Children. The assistant conductor for the chorus is Angela Weaver, Shepherd alumna and music teacher at Driswood Elementary School. Jennifer Forbes, a junior piano performance major from Purcellville, Virginia, will accompany the chorus.
The Shepherd Community Orchestra, made up of high school string students and community members from Jefferson and Berkeley counties and Washington County, Maryland, will perform the second half of the program. This semester, the orchestra is co-directed by Camilo Pérez-Mejía, an award winning cellist and strings teacher, and Dr. Jeannine Sturm, a strings teacher with Berkeley County Schools.
The orchestra will perform John Philip Sousa’s “The Fairest of the Fair”; Emmanuel Chabrier’s “España Rhapsody”; Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Russian Easter Overture”; Alexander Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” from Prince Igor; and Mendelssohn’s “Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 40. Mvt. II, Adagio” performed by Jessica Wu, a two-time winner of the Siegel-Hoffman Piano Concerto competition.
Coaches for the community orchestra include Brian Lange, choir director and music teacher at Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County, winds; Heather Austin-Stone, assistant concert master with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster of the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra, violin; and Kathy Shrader, orchestra director at North Hagerstown High School, viola.
The Community Music program at Shepherd thanks Younis Orthodontics and the Younis family for providing a donation to help fund financial aid for these ensembles.
General admission to the concert is $5 and free for Shepherd students with a valid Rambler ID. Tickets can be purchased at the box office 30 minutes prior to the concert. For more information, contact Sherry Sykes, coordinator of Community Music Programs at Shepherd, at ssykes@shepherd.edu or 304-876-5248.
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