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MSO brings college,
town musicians together to celebrate 65th year, young
artists, conductor Robert Jones
NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – The
Manchester Symphony Orchestra will perform its season finale on Sunday,
May 2 in a celebration of its 65th season, outstanding young artists and
its conductor of 25 years, Robert G. Jones.
The 50-member community orchestra is
comprised of area residents, and Manchester College
students, faculty and staff. Jones, who is retiring as associate
professor of music/woodwinds at the college, also is retiring as MSO
conductor.
The Sunday performance begins at
3 p.m. in Cordier Auditorium on the Manchester College campus.
General admission is $5, with students and senior citizens admitted
free.
“My work with the
MSO has been one
of the most rewarding aspects of my responsibilities at Manchester
College,” said Jones. “Especially gratifying is the fact that former MC
students have returned to become ongoing members of the orchestra.”
Organist Diane Scheerer, owner of the
Treeway Inn, was a former student of Jones and is still a member of
MSO. “Bob was an inspiration to my music education as he
allowed me to feel respected, optimistic and empowered by his guidance,”
she said. “As a conductor, Bob chose repertoire that you wouldn’t expect
a small orchestra to do: well-known pieces that were fine quality
choices in a library, and they were consistently performed with
excellence.”
Featured in the season
finale are Young Artist Competition winners: pianist Kara Fawley of
Warsaw,
pianist Alicia Pyle of Fort Wayne, and violinist Azusa Chapman of
Goshen. Students in the Wawasee High School Orchestra, directed by Joyce
Dubach, and the North Central Indiana String Association, directed by
Linda Kummernuss, also will perform.
Wawasee High students will
join the
MSO for Coplan’s An Outdoor
Overture. Alicia Pyle will perform the last movement of
Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for Piano and
Orchestra No. 1. Azusa Chapman will perform the
first movement of Symphonie
espagnole by Lalo.
The North Central Indiana String
Association students will join MSO strings in
Scarlet Sarafan and
Air and Pizzicato Staccatto.
Kara Fawley will perform the first movement of Saint-SaNns'
Concerto No. 2 for Piano and
Orchestra.
In its 65th season, the North
Manchester/Manchester College Civic Symphony is one of
Indiana's longest running "town and gown" orchestras. When the
orchestra opened its first season with 35 musicians in 1939 in the
Central High School auditorium, North Manchester was the state's
smallest community to support a symphony. Today, it still holds that
distinction. The symphony merged with Manchester College’s orchestra in
1943 and made a permanent move to campus in 1958.
The Manchester Symphony Society provides
four concerts during the September-May concert season, and two free
summer concerts. The Society provides scholarships for music students,
funds master classes and workshops in area local schools and subsidizes
educational performances. For season tickets and membership information,
write the Manchester Symphony Society, P.O. Box 113, North
Manchester, IN 46962. |
