For its 127th concert season, the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Ruth Lin have set their sights east and will be presenting concerts through Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. The 73-member ensemble will leave the campus on March 27 and return April 3. On the tour, the ensemble will present concerts in St. Marys & Warrington, PA; Richmond & Norfolk, VA; and Washington, D.C.
The symphony’s home concert will be presented in Bjorling Recital Hall on Sunday, April 12 at 1:30 p.m. That performance will be presented as a fund-raiser for the Starfish Project which provides school supplies for elementary schools in Namibia and South Africa. In 2012, the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra delivered hundreds of pounds of clothes and school supplies to some of these schools while on its international concert tour to South Africa. The audience for the home concert is invited to give donations to support the work of the Starfish Project. All donations are tax-deductible.
The performance schedule for the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra’s 2015 concert tour to the East Coast is:
- 7:30 p.m., March 28, St. Marys Area High School Auditorium, St. Marys, Penn.
- 7:30 p.m., March 29, Christ The King Lutheran Church, Richmond, Virg.
- 7:00 p.m., March 30, Norview High School Auditorium, Norfolk, Virg.
- 7:30 p.m., March 31, Central Buck High School Auditorium, Warrington, Penn.
- 7:00 p.m., April 1, Lutheran Church of the Reformation, Washington, D.C.
- 1:30 p.m., April 12, Home Concert, Bjorling Recital Hall, Gustavus Adolphus College
For the Symphony’s concert program, Dr. Lin has selected two works. The concert will open with Alexander Glazunov’s Intermezzo Romantico, Op. 69. Following a brief intermission, the ensemble will return to the stage for Dmitri Shostakovich’s 4-movement Symphony No. 5 in D. minor, Op. 47. 75 years ago under extreme political pressure in the Soviet Union, Shostakovich wrote his now-legendary Symphony No. 5. It is a seminal work of the 20th Century and stands as an example of the creative genius of Shostakovich, who withdrew his Fourth Symphony from publication to protect his family and friends from the retribution of the Soviet leadership. As described by Conductor Ruth Lin, the symphony is a tribute to the composer’s ability to “create a work of such power and optimism under such harsh and restrictive political conditions.”
The 73-member Gustavus Symphony Orchestra will return to the campus to present its Home Concert on Sunday, April 12 at 1:30. This performance, a fund-raiser for the Starfish Project where donations are invited, will be presented in the Jussi Bjorling Recital Hall. Admission to this performance is free and the public is cordially invited to attend.
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