BlueWater Chamber Orchestra
Carlton Woods, Artistic Director
Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Plymouth Church UCC
2860 Coventry Rd
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Featuring
Ken Wadenpfuhl, horn
George Sakakeeny, bassoon
Program
Composition by the winner of Iron Composer 2014: Jason Thorpe Buchanan
Larsen: Full Moon in the City
Dukas: Villanelle
Schubert: Symphony No. 3
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra concludes its 2014-15 season with an engaging program that features two of its principal musicians as soloists—George Sakakeeny, bassoon, and Ken Wadenpfuhl, horn—as well as a premiere "de/ter| |ior.ation" by composer Jason Thorpe Buchanan, winner of the 2014 Iron Composer Competition held each year in Cleveland. Artistic Director Carlton R. Woods will conduct. The concert will take place on May 9, 2015, at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church UCC, 2860 Coventry Road, Shaker Heights.
Mr. Sakakeeny will perform “full moon in the city,” by American composer Libby Larsen. This piece was commissioned for him by Oberlin Conservatory of Music. The whimsical composition tells the story of a bassoon’s stroll through a club district in a large city. Mr. Wadenpfuhl continues the street scene theme with Villanelle by Paul Dukas. Originating from the Neapolitan 16th century street song or a sophisticated parody of a madrigal, the piece is a virtuosic showpiece for horn, originally written as a demanding exam piece for students at the Paris Conservatoire. The concert will conclude with a performance of Schubert’s Symphony No. 3.
Prior to the performance, there will be a unique opportunity for audience members to “Meet the Composer.” From 6:45-7:15 pm Jason Thorpe Buchanan will be in the Plymouth sanctuary to discuss his new work and his compositional techniques.
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra and the Iron Composer Competition have a collaborative venture in which works by competition winners are given a performance by BlueWater on its regular series concerts. 2014 winner Jason Thorpe Buchanan is an American composer of operatic, orchestral, chamber, and electroacoustic music. His works have been described as "an unearthly collage of sounds," "sharply-edged," and "free jazz gone wrong" and have been commissioned and performed by conductors and ensembles across the globe. He has won many awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship, the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, and the Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize. His current projects include Hunger, a multimedia opera with libretto by award-winning poet Darcie Dennigan.
The Iron Composer is an instant composition contest, in which five composers are invited to compete in person and have just five hours to write a piece of music that incorporates required elements. Their works are then performed and judged on a public concert that same evening.
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra concerts are designed to be family friendly. The 75 minute concert will be performed without intermission. Plymouth Church is also wheelchair accessible.
Tickets are available at the door: $25/regular; $15/senior; $10/student; with a special family pass (2 adults/2 students) for $50. Discounts are applied to pre-concert sales purchased online at www.bluewaterorchestra.com or by phone 440-781-6215.