Musicians of the Clinton Symphony Orchestra will be featured in a concert of chamber music Sunday afternoon, November 8, 2015. The performance is at 3:00 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 439 3rd Avenue South, in Clinton, IA.
Three trios are on the program, each composed for a set of friends by famous composers. “Chamber music has always been considered ‘the music of friendships,'” according to the Symphony’s Executive Director, Robert Whipple. “It is usually composed for a small group of friends, who then perform it for a group of their friends. We are pleased to carry on that tradition,” he said.
Opening the program will be a trio for two oboes and English horn, written by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was composed for three musician brothers in Vienna, at the close of the 18th Century. For Sunday’s performance, the oboe parts will be played by Kevin Deets of Polo, IL, and Nicole Kotman of Fulton, IL, with Barbara Lauff of Sterling, IL, playing the lower voice, the English horn. Deets and Lauff are regular members of the orchestra, and Kotman is a first-call substitute when needed. She is a native of Sterling and was a student of both Deets and Lauff while in high school.
A century later, the composer Antonin Dvorak was living in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He met a young chemistry student who played violin and his violin teacher. Dvorak was a violist and composed a trio for the three of them. On Sunday, the piece will be performed by violinist Rachel Palmer, a middle school orchestra teacher in Bettendorf, IA; violinist Charles Bald, a senior music education major at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. Denzel Woodall, an Augustana student and Freeport, IL, native, will play Dvorak’s viola part. All three musicians are regular members of the orchestra.
To conclude Sunday’s performance, a trio for clarinet, piano, and cello will be performed by three of the Symphony’s principal chair players. The clarinet will be played by David Bean of Morrison, IL, left. Nadia Wirchnianski of Lanark, IL, center, will play the piano part. The cello part will be performed by David Spaulding of Dixon, IL. They will perform a trio by Beethoven, commissioned by a noted clarinetist, Joseph Baer. The final section of the piece is a set of variations based on a popular song of the period, known as the “Gassenhauer,” or Street Song.
Tickets are available at the door, with adult admission at $15 and students $5. Students through 8th grade are admitted free of charge.
The concert is the second in the Symphony’s 62nd season. Season tickets for the remaining concerts of the season will also be available at the door at a prorated price.
Full program notes describing the compositions to be performed are available on the Symphony’s website at www.clintonsymphony.org.