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Local Students Invited to Audition for Side-by-Side Performance
At this year's Holiday Pops, up to thirty local students will have the opportunity to perform right next to Lansing Symphony musicians onstage at the Wharton Center. On November 19th, area instrumentalists grades 6 through 12 can audition for an opportunity to rehearse and perform Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite side-by-side with the Lansing Symphony. The program, sponsored by the Capital Region Community Foundation’s Youth Action Committee and Macy’s, will give students the opportunity to work with and learn from professional musicians, to be led by Music Director Timothy Muffitt and to perform onstage at the Wharton Center during one of the orchestra’s most popular concerts of the year.
Auditions will be held Friday, November 19, 2010 from 3:30-8:30pm at Pattengill Middle School’s Auditorium (626 Marshall St., Lansing). Advanced registration is required, and applications are due by Friday, November 12, 2010. Students will be asked to perform excerpts from the Nutcracker Suite for the audition, which will be judged by Lansing Symphony musicians. Students can download applications and music for study at our website. Positions throughout the orchestra are available, including Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, French Horn, Trumpet and Trombone.
MORE INFORMATION - DOWNLOAD APPLICATION |
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Songs of Winter to Celebrate the Season
John Rutter's song cycle When Icicles Hang celebrates the blowing winds, warm fireplaces, hanging icicles and cheerful carols of winter. Ernst Bloch's Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh) is a monumental work for orchestra, cantor and chorus, the first large-scale setting of a Jewish Sabbath service. At MasterWorks 3: Songs of Winter, the two will combine with "Winter" from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons for a magical night illuminating this captivating time of year.
David Rayl, Director of Choral Programs at MSU, will lead the orchestra and choruses. Baritone David Small will join the ensemble as cantor for Sacred Service, and Concertmaster Seunghee Lee will shine as soloist in "Winter."
David Rayl provides the following thoughts on the concert: "This concert offers an alternative look at music of the season. Vivaldi's "Winter" concerto from The Four Seasons vividly depicts the harsh weather of a Michigan winter. Rutter's When Icicles Hang sets the texts of secular medieval English carols. And finally, our performance of Bloch's eloquently moving Sacred Service, though not written for any specific season, pays special tribute to the Jewish feast of Hanukkah."
BUY TICKETS - READ PROGRAM NOTES |
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MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT: Char Sherman
Char Sherman auditioned for the Lansing Symphony Orchestra in 1963, shortly after her husband George started a position with Michigan State University, bringing their family to Lansing in 1962. Over the past 37 years, Char has watched the Lansing Symphony grow from a community orchestra performing in Lansing's Sexton and Everett High Schools to a professional organization with full-time staff and programs that keep our "plates spinning all year long."
Char was born in Marshall, MI and began her studies on the viola. When she was 14, her high school music director needed a cellist and talked her into it. She recalls that she read everything in the viola clef for the first few months, but eventually the cello stuck. She took lessons from the great Louis Potter, Jr., who also taught her two sons. She received a scholarship to play the cello at Wayne State University and pursued a degree in English.
Char remarked that one of the greatest changes she's seen in the orchestra is the quality and artistic growth under Music Director Timothy Muffitt. "The orchestra is phenomenal," she said. "Timothy has done such a magnificent job, and playing under him has been the experience of a lifetime. I was ready to retire after Gustav Meier retired, but after one year with Timothy, I knew I had to stay on."
"It's our long term members who carry the orchestra's traditions and history from one from season to next," explained Timothy Muffitt. "We are most grateful to Char for her dedication to the Lansing Symphony over the past 37 years."
Among her greatest musical memories with the Lansing Symphony, Char recalls "anytime we played Mahler and anytime Ralph Votapek was soloist." She remembers fantastic performances with guests like Dave Brubeck, Henry Mancini and Seiji Ozawa, who she said "could barely speak English at the time, but communicated so wonderfully through the music."
We always think it's interesting to find out what instrument musicians would switch to if they were given the choice. "The flute," Char quickly answered. "It's the smallest - the cello is too heavy! At least the bass is on wheels - I have to carry my cello on my back!" |
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