2008 Year in Review

Violinist to be Featured in Clinton Symphony Concert

Violinist Marcia Henry Liebenow, concertmaster of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, will be the featured soloist with Clinton Symphony Orchestra in concert at 8 p.m., Saturday, February 23 in Centennial Auditorium at Sterling High School. She will perform the Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor for violin and orchestra, with the orchestra under the leadership of the Symphony's new Music Director and Conductor, Brian Dollinger.

In addition to her duties with the Peoria Symphony, Liebenow teaches violin, viola and chamber music a Bradley University, and is a founding member of the Concordia String Trio, the River City String Quartet, and the jazz quartet Marcia Henry + 3. She has appeared as violin soloist with orchestras in Russia, Italy and Germany, and across the United States. She holds performance degrees from Ohio University and New England Conservatory of Music.

She is well-known as a teacher, and in 2003 received the "Outstanding Studio Teacher" award from the Illinois Chapter of American String Teachers Association. During her rehearsals with the Clinton Symphony, she will visit and work with music classes in the area, made possible by a grant from Sauk Valley Bank.

The orchestra will present two other works on the program which is part of its 54th concert season. The first is a suite by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg written in honor of his countryman, writer and philosopher Ludvig Holberg. The five-part suite is performed by the string section of the orchestra. To complete the concert, Dollinger has chosen the Second Symphony of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, written at a time when Finland had broken the bonds of Swedish rule, only to fall under the control of Russia. The symphony is considered to be the most nationalistic of Sibelius' symphonies.

Because of the uncertain winter weather, the Symphony has entered into a partnership with Community State Bank to bring a bus along the U.S. Route 30 corridor, from Clinton, through Fulton and Morrison, to the concert in Sterling. The cost to riders will be $5 per person, and reservations can be made through Symphony Board member Marianne Jensen in Clinton at 563-243-5958, with Cheryl Green at the CSB office in Fulton, 815-589-9090; or Audrey Foltz at the Morrison CSB office, 815-772-4011. Complete details are available from any of these contacts.

Concert tickets are available in advance at England Music Center in Clinton, Fitzgerald Pharmacy in Morrison and Grummert's Hardware in Sterling. Maps to Centennial Auditorium are also available at the advance ticket locations. Tickets will also be available at the door of the concert. Adult tickets are $12, with high school and college student tickets at $5. Students through 8th grade are admitted free of charge.

Program notes for the music to be performed and maps to the various venues can be found on the Symphony's website.

Major funding for this concert has been provided by CGH Medical Center in Sterling.

by  Editor, theCity1.com
February 19, 2008