PEORIA -- The Heartland Festival Orchestra, formed when the Peoria Symphony Orchestra fired its popular conductor/artistic director David Commanday, continues to flourish. It has won important awards, Illinois Orchestra of the Year 2011 with Commanday named Illinois Conductor of the Year 2011 by the Illinois Council of Orchestras.
Here is its schedule for the 2011-2012 Season:
Concert I: Romantic Heroes August 27, 2011
Featuring: piano soloist Adam Neiman
Mozart Overture to Don Giovanni
Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 in A
Schubert Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished)
Prokofiev Classical Symphony
Celebrating the 200th birth year of one of music’s most colorful figures – Franz Liszt; virtuoso pianist, composer, cult figure, mesmerist (this ‘list’ could go on)…with a visit by a modern keyboard giant, Adam Neiman. This program is a ‘portrait’ of the romantic sensibility – first with pre-romantic Mozart, then early-romantic Schubert, peaking in the high romantic of Liszt’s 2nd Concerto. We conclude the concert with post-romantic and brilliant Prokofiev!
Concert II: Beethoven Lives Upstairs _ __ October 8, 2011
Featuring: Classical Kids Live
Beethoven “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” (excerpts from the works of L. v B.)
Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D, Opus 36
In Beethoven Lives Upstairs, two actors join the HFO to present a dramatic and musical portrait of the mysterious and difficult Mr. B, offering young and old a glimpse into the relationship between the man and his world, and between the man and his music.
Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony, the next in our HFO cycle of the symphonies, will complete the program.
Concert III: New Year’s Greeting Vienna to Broadway January 7, 2012
Featuring: Lisa Vroman and Gary Mauer of Bravo Broadway
Our traditional New Year’s Greeting concert evolves into a celebration of two worlds. Lisa Vroman and Gary Maurer are two of America’s finest vocal and stage soloists, both on and off Broadway. The combination of Viennese operetta and the American musical in this concert will dazzle and delight.
Concert IV: Old and New World Strings March 17, 2012
Featuring: clarinet soloist David Gresham
Elgar Introduction and Allegro
Copland Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, Piano, and Harp
Foote Suite for Strings
Britten Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
The virtuoso strings of the HFO are featured in this program straddling the Atlantic – with works by Britons Edward Elgar and Benjamin Britten, and American early romantic Arthur Foote. Aaron Copland’s brilliant clarinet concerto written for jazz great Benny Goodman, will be played by the HFO’s own virtuoso, David Gresham.
Concert V: Amadeus ______________ June 2, 2012
Featuring: violin soloist Stefan Milenkovich
Mozart Symphony No. 1
Salieri Sinfonia in D
L. Mozart Jagdsinfonie
Mozart Gran Partita for winds
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 in A
W.A. Mozart Divertimento No. 2 in D, K. 131
Boy genius, pampered child, social misfit, sensitive soul, hard worker, or …?
We take another look at the genius who was Mozart, featuring a festival screening of the film “Amadeus” on our concert weekend, and works of the man, his father, and his sometime rival… Phenomenal violinist Stefan Milenkovich joins us with his inimitable musicality and brilliance.
The Heartland Festival Orchestra has begun subscription sales for its third season, available in person at: Kidder Music and Five Points Washington, online at www.heartlandfestivalorchestra.org, or by calling 309-339-3943.
Full season subscription cost is $135 for adults and $35 for students/children; single tickets for Season 3 are $30 for adults and $8 for students/children
Expect the unexpected with the Heartland Festival Orchestra, as each concert will include something unannounced!
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