FARMINGTON – Do you play an orchestral instrument? Looking for opportunities to join with other musicians in the rehearsal and performance of great music? Then consider joining the University of Maine at Farmington Community Orchestra.
Conducted by Philip Carlsen, professor of Music, and consisting of students, community members and semi-professional musicians, the orchestra plays music from the standard orchestral repertoire, as well as more esoteric fare.
This past April, for example, the “traditional” part of the concert consisted of a Haydn symphony, the “Children’s Corner Suite” by Debussy and Aaron Copland’s “Quiet City” for trumpet, English horn and strings. But, on the more adventurous side, the concert also included the premiere of a collage piece that Carlsen had created for the orchestra and pianist Steven Pane, combining snippets of pieces by Beethoven, Haydn, Berlioz, Stravinsky and others in a kind of reflection and commentary on Beethoven’s last piano sonata.
Coming up this fall, among other things, the orchestra will be performing with the UMF Community Chorus and Steven Pane in Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy.”
The orchestra rehearses Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9:30 p.m. on the recently expanded stage of UMF’s Nordica Auditorium. For further information, please contact Philip Carlsen at carlsen@maine.edu. Or simply show up with instrument in hand at the first rehearsal on Sept. 3.
