Symphony Orchestra Proposals

The music concert this review covers is the Plano Symphony’s rendition of the Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in C minor and Symphony No. 9, The Choral, in D minor. The concert was held at a church in April 16, 2016, and it was a sold out performance. Since it was a night simply dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven, the symphony titled the concert as “Best of Beethoven.”

1a. The first piece of the concert was Divertimento No. 2 in B-flat Major, K.137, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). This Divertimento has 3 movements:

Last Thursday, I attended the Department of Music Concert Series at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. I was able to listen to both the Symphony Band, under the direction of Dr. Cara Morantz as well as the Wind Symphony Band directed by Dr. Sean Murray. They presented a tremendous performance comprised of pieces by J.B. Chance, Frank Ticheli, Samuel Hazo as well as a wide variety of other authors. The event was pleasurable to me, as well as many others in attendance to the concert. By the looks, colleagues families and teachers came to support the talented musicians on stage that night!

I decided to attend the Symphony on the Prairie on July24, 2015. I haven’t been to a Symphony Orchestra since I was very young and I was unable to attend the Symphony last Friday or Saturday. My fellow classmates invited me to the concert on July 24, 2015. I wanted to view a concert so I agreed to attend the Symphony with them. I also like Harry Potter and Star Wars; and they played pieces from both movies in the Symphony concert. Unfortunately there wasn’t any vocal throughout the concert but there were many instruments. These instruments include the entire string family (violin, viola, cello, and contrabass), the woodwind family (flute, piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and contrabassoon), the brass family (English horn, horn, trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, and tuba), and the percussion family (timpani, harp, and keyboard)

East Carolina’s Concert band and Symphonic band performed on Tuesday, February 16, at seven thirty in the evening in Wright Auditorium. Being a duel performance it included over a hundred of my talented East Carolina peers led by outstanding band Directors Dr. Juchniewicz and Dr. Staub. Along with great students and Directors, the show incorporated a beautiful trombone solo performed by a fellow colleague. Although I have never attended a concert where such style of music was being performed, I did enjoy the music being played and most of them sounded as if I heard them before. The professionalism the students portrayed and maintain to the audience was breathtaking and made me honored to be their peers.

I went to the Colorado Springs Philharmonic on October 22 2017, the concert was performed at the fine arts center and lasted 2 hours. The Colorado Springs Philharmonic performed under Josep Caballe-Domenech the conductor. The concert was put on as part of the October arts month at the Fine Arts Center. The Music was from the Romantic Period, it featured a full symphony. The musical instruments that were featured was a full range of strings including: violin, viola, double-bass, and the cello. It also featured a whole set of brass and wind instruments.

My bow lifted off of my cello and froze midair after the final chord of Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival”, and I grinned at my stand partner. The audience rose to their feet, whooping and whistling as the conductor cued the orchestra for the encore.

I attended a Senior Recital performed by Travis Hogue-Smith. This concert took place at Barry University’s chapel on March 28, 2017 at 7:30 PM. The instruments used in this concert are a clarinet, played by Travis Hogue-Smith, and a piano, play Dr. Beverly Coulter. Music from both Romantic and Classical genres were played in this concert.

On October 13, I attended a concert by the UT Jazz orchestra at the Bates Recital Hall. This performance consisted of seven pieces and all were stylistically different, which allowed the audience to enjoy the various sounds of jazz music. Among the instrument groups, there are saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano and drums. Professor Jeff Hellmer served as director andJohn Mills appeared as guest conductor. The whole concert made a lasting impression on me.

Smithville High School presented two winter concerts. I got the opportunity to view both performances. The first show was by the Vocal Music Department directed by Mr. Marcus Duncan and aided by accompanist Emily Rowland, and the second show was by the Jazz Ensemble and Symphonic Band conducted by Mr. Tom Brockman and Ms. Brittany Terwey. There were very similar aspects of the two concerts and very different aspects of the two concerts.

On Saturday, October 1st, 2016, I attended a performance by The DVC Symphonic Band at the Performing Arts Center at Diablo Valley College. The symphony was composed of wind, brass, and percussions sections as well as a string bass and a piano. The musicians were all dressed in black with a blue haired clarinetist and a pink haired French horn player.

On November 3rd, 2016 I had a pleasure of attending James Levine’s symphony at Chicago Symphony Orchestra. James Levine is an American pianist and conductor, mainly known for being a music director of the Metropolitan Opera. He suffered many health conditions that have put his conducting aside. At the end of 2015, he left his position as a director to become an emeritus of the Metropolitan Opera. One of the interesting facts about Mr. Levine is that many of the sources do not mention is his disability. Mr. Levine is in a wheelchair and needs assistance in order to get to the podium, but his conducting is not effected by this in fact his efforts and dedication put audience into tears every time. On November 3rd, James Levine conducted Mozart’s

Issaquah Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) was formed in 2000, and it became a non-profit organization in February 2012, with a board comprising of 9 members. The mission of the orchestra is to “to providing qualified youth and experienced adults from Issaquah and surrounding communities an opportunity to perform symphonic music; to foster music education in the community; and to contribute to the enhancement of the performing arts in Issaquah.” (“Issaquah Philharmonic Orchestra,” n.d.), and it performs 3 public concerts a year, since November, 2003.

This concert is performed in the Avery Fisher hall within the Lincoln Center in New York City. It was performed on July 29, 2008. The orchestra that is performing is the 42nd Mostly Mozart Orchestra. The conductor is Louis Langrée. The two pieces being performed in this concert is Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

I have never been personally a fan of the romantic orchestra music but going to listen to a concert live is breathtaking. I attended the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Masterpieces concert with music director Fouad Fakhouri performing Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No.1 in D major. There was a full stage of musicians and a complete choir to back it up.