Strings Serenade at TAMIU March 4

On Sunday, March 4, 2007 at 4 p.m., the Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra returns to the stage at Texas A&M International University’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts’ Recital Hall, with its Spring program, “String Serenade.”

The string orchestra program spans four centuries and is the latest edition in the popular “Evolution” season.

Tickets are available at the business offices at TAMIU and Laredo Community College, as well as at International Bank of Commerce and Wells Fargo Bank locations.

They are $25 for adults and $17 for seniors. Students with an ID card are admitted for free.

Brendan Townsend, LPO music director and conductor, noted that the March 4 performance offers an intriguing program, special guest artists and composers and some LPO “firsts.”

“Joining the LPO for this performance will be the students and members of the ‘Combined College Orchestra’ which includes students from LCC, TAMIU and area schools. This will be the first time that these forces have combined on stage for a truly educational experience for the students. They’ll sit alongside professionals and learn first-hand the meaning of playing at a professional level,” Townsend said.

He added that the string family has dominated the history of western music ensemble development and the March 4 program offers clear evidence of it.

“Two centerpieces of the program are the ‘Concerto for Two Violins and Strings’ by Malcolm Arnold and the United States premiere of a short work for string orchestra titled ‘Three Fragments’ by Polish composer Mikolaj Gorecki, who for the past five years has made Laredo his home,” he explained.

British composer Arnold has written music in nearly every possible combination and genre and won an Academy Award in 1956 for the “Bridge Over the River Kwai” film score.

“His ‘Peterloo’ opened the LPO’ last season,” Townsend recalled, “This program’s concerto for two violins and strings gets its inspiration from some of the great double violin concertos of the Baroque era. It features soloists David deLambre and Karen Stiles, a husband and wife team,  members of the San Antonio Symphony. They have enjoyed international success as soloists, chamber musicians and orchestral players,” Townsend said.

Also on the program will be one of the most famous string orchestra pieces of all time – the Concerto Grosso Op 6 No. 1 of George Fredrich Handel – and the Sonata for Organ and Strings by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

Townsend said Gorecki, familiar to LCC music students as a music theory professor, is also an accomplished composer.

“He is from a family of composers and musicians, and recently brought the first ‘Laredo Piano Days’ to the LCC stage. Our March 4 performance will feature the US debut of his ‘Three Fragments,’ performed previously in Canada. The selection offers startling tonal colors that will intrigue,” Townsend promised.

Rounding out the program will be the ‘Serenade in E minor’ by British romantic composer Sir Edward Elgar.

Townsend said the Sunday, March 4 program underscores the joy, beauty and purity of string sound.

“This program is about the joyous nature of strings, the constant sense of beauty and purity in their sound … all of which finds remarkable voice in our Sunday ‘String Serenade,’ ” he said.

This is the third installment of the LPO “Evolution” Season, which has included the concerts “Discovery and Experimentation” and “Of Life and Death.”

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu