Sumptuous Sounds of Strings Sunday at TAMIU
On Sunday, October 29 at 3:00 p.m. at Texas A&M International University’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts’ Recital Hall, the String family of the orchestra will feature prominently in the Laredo Philharmonic’s opening concert of its 38th Concert Season.
Tickets for the concert are $20 for adults. Students are admitted free of charge. Season tickets for all four concerts are $80 and can be purchased online or at the door. “Sumptuous Strings” is the first of four concerts that the Laredo Phil will present this year, each concert prominently featuring a different group of instruments.
“Most people know that the difference between a band and an orchestra is the addition of a string section,” explains Brendan Townsend, music director of the Laredo Phil, “It is that unique sound which allows composers a lush and rich palette with which to create beautiful colors and effects.”
The other three families of instruments in the ensemble: the brass, woodwinds, and percussion, are featured in upcoming concerts.
“Featuring the strings first makes perfect sense,” said Townsend, “and sets the tone for the integration of the rest of the orchestra later in the season.”
The concert will begin with the harmonious sounds of five solo cellos depicting dawn in the Swiss Alps as the prelude to the heroic overture to the legend of the revolutionary William Tell. The closing section will be familiar to anyone who ever watched the “Lone Ranger” on TV with its upbeat, cavalry-like theme.
The strings alone perform in the Andante Graziosso & Capriccio of Robert Fuchs, while typical “Country Fiddling” will close out the first half of the concert.
The whole ensemble will come together to perform the lively and upbeat Symphony No. 4, nicknamed the “Italian Symphony,” by the famous German musician Felix Mendelssohn.
“Mendelssohn’s travels to Italy as a young man filled him with such joy and happiness that when he sat down to write music to express these emotions, the music flowed boyishly from his pen,” said Townsend excitedly, “This music is just so happy and upbeat, it will lift anyone’s spirit!”
The season’s opening concert begins promptly at 3:00 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 29 at TAMIU’s Center for the Fine & Performing Arts Recital Hall. For additional information, call Angeline Townsend at 956.236.7772, email laredophilharmonic@gmail.com or click on www.laredophil.com/concerts.