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Mozart Requiem Sun., April 25, 2010 8:00 PM Randolph College (Randolph College Event) Orchestral Gems* Sun., May 2, 2010 3:00 PM E.C. Glass Auditorium * Remaining subscription series concerts |
4/6/10: LSO Appeals to the Community The Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Bruce Habitzruther, has played beautiful music for our community and the surrounding area for the past 26 years. We have had many successes and challenges, including the most recent downturn of the economy and the decline in corporate sponsorship. Our Board of Directors considered how to work with the loss of income and agreed to reduce all salaries for the fiscal year 2009-2010. Even with these cost saving measures, we are operating at a deficit to complete the final concert, "Orchestral Gems," on May 2, 2010. Bruce and Ellen Habitzruther offered to work the concert for free. Local musicians were asked and have agreed to play the final concert without pay to avoid canceling the event. As of April 1, the LSO Board has put the Executive Director and Administrative Assistant on an indefinite furlough. We are very grateful for their five years of dedicated service. We thank all of the patrons who have supported the LSO over the years, especially those who attended "Cherish the Ladies" and "The Lynchburg Pops" concert in March, both of which operated at a loss due to low ticket sales and lack of corporate sponsors. We appreciate all the gifts from businesses and individuals as well as the advertisers who have sponsored us over the years. We appreciate the Friends of the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra for their volunteer and financial support. We are working very hard to generate funds to allow us to complete this season in the black and to continue with our plans for an exciting 2010-2011 season; however your help is needed now. Please call 434-845-6604 or donate online at Lynchburg Tickets. 3/8/10: Lynchburg Pops Event Offers a Potpourri of Great Music The Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra travels for the first time to the James River Conference Center on Saturday, March 13, for an 8 PM concert patterned after the famous Boston Pops presentations. The concert, named the Lynchburg Pops, is the orchestra’s first production in a room transformed into a nightclub setting, with the audience seated at tables and invited to enjoy some of their favorite music – mostly Broadway show tunes, in this case. A cash bar will also be available. The concert is the brainchild of LSO board president Rick Edwards, who with his wife Linda enjoyed attending Pops concerts at Kennedy Center conducted by Marvin Hamlisch and similar concerts on the Washington Mall conducted by the late Erich Kunzel. He suggested the idea to the orchestra’s program committee, which decided to put the production on the concert schedule for 2009-2010. Broadway music to be performed by the orchestra conducted by Bruce Habitzruther include selections from “Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Miserables,” “Cats,” “West Side Story,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” One segment of the concert will also be made up of music from the classic 1950s television series Victory at Sea, and there will also be a Strauss polka and a march by John Philip Sousa. Also, the Blue Ridge Area Food bank Lynchburg office will have a collection point at the James River Conference Center that evening, to collect canned and non-perishable food as part of the “Orchestras Feeding America” program by the League of American Orchestras. 2/27/10: Live Irish Dancing Demo Added to March 6 Concert The March 6 concert by the top Irish music/dancing group Cherish the Ladies will feature a pre-concert talk and demonstration on the culture and technique of Irish stepdancing, which the Cherish the Ladies group features prominently in their shows. The 7 PM pre-concert event in a chorus room near E.C. Glass Auditorium in Lynchburg is being organized by Lori Madden, Dance Instructor and Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Irish Music School in Faber, VA, and dance instructor for Irish stepdancing classes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg. The concert itself begins at 8 PM, at the E.C. Glass Auditorium in Lynchburg. Dancers will be drawn from the Academy dance classes, and musicians for the demonstration will be students from the Irish music school. Dancers from the Academy classes will also join dancers from Cherish the Ladies onstage during the concert. Irish stepdancing and other forms of Irish social dance have been popularized largely by the world-famous show “Riverdance.” It is most notable for its rapid leg movements, while the upper body and arms are kept largely stationary. For several years, Madden has taught stepdancing classes for both beginner and advanced dancers at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg. A new round of classes begins in late March. The Blue Ridge Irish Music School (BRIMS) is dedicated to teaching the living art of Irish traditional music and fostering a dynamic environment for it in Central Virginia and beyond. The school’s objective is to teach people that music can be more than just a radio or concert experience: it can also be part of the fabric of everyday life, family, and community. The school offers individual music lessons, group classes, master classes, and céilí dances. Madden, the schools’s Dance Instructor and Executive Director, has been teaching Irish Step, Irish Social, Ceili, and Set Dance to children of all ages as well as to adults for ten years through BRIMS. In addition to her work at BRIMS and at the Academy, she teaches Irish dance in Richmond and at the Mountain Road Fiddle Camp in West Virginia. She has performed with the Humorous Abandon Irish dance ensemble at Floyd Fest and the Lake Eden Arts Festival and also in the full length Irish dance productions Drowsy Maggie and Robin Hood. In 2003, Lori served as Irish dance consultant for the Paul Wagner film, Angels. Taking its name from the name of a traditional Irish jig, Cherish the Ladies combines all the facets of Irish traditional culture and puts it forth in an immensely humorous and entertaining package. Recent years have seen the group traveling all over North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe, Australia and New Zealand performing in concert halls and international festivals. They are equally at home in front of a symphony orchestra, a performing arts center, a folk festival or even at the White House, and they have shared the stage with such noted entertainers as James Taylor, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, The Chieftains and dozens of symphony orchestras. 2/25/10: LSO To Benefit the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank The Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra is participating in Orchestras Feeding America, the second annual food drive by America’s symphony orchestras. The LSO will collect non-perishable food at the sites of two concerts in March — an appearance by the Irish Group Cherish the Ladies at 8 PM March 6 at E.C. Glass Auditorium, and at 8 PM on March 13 at the James River Conference Center, the location for the orchestra’s first-ever Lynchburg Pops Concert. “We all are feeling the effects of this economic crisis, but we cannot let that stop us from helping our neighbors in greater need,” noted LSO executive director Rick Piester. “Our orchestra’s music uplifts people, but with this project we can do more to support the community that has supported us for so long.” Food donations will not allow donors admission to the concerts. One in eight Americans is at risk of hunger, Piester noted. According to the USDA, there are more than 49 million people at risk of hunger in the U.S.; nearly 17 million of them are children. Collected food will be donated to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank’s Lynchburg office. Food items most needed include canned meats (tuna, salmon, Spam), canned vegetables, canned fruits, pasta and pasta sauces, peanut butter, boxed fruit juice, and cereals. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank is unable to accept items in glass jars or bottles, unlabeled or dented cans, any open or resealed packaging, perishable foods, homemade foods, expired products, monetary donations, and clothing, diapers or other non food items. The Lynchburg Symphony is one of more than 200 joining to combat hunger in their communities through Orchestras Feeding America. The project is organized by the League of American Orchestras, which represents the nation’s professional, volunteer, and youth orchestras, and Feeding America’s network of over 200 food banks and 63,000 agencies. 2/24/10: LSO Presents Cherish the Ladies When describing Cherish the Ladies – the critics say it best . . . “It is simply impossible to imagine an audience that wouldn’t enjoy what they do,” the Boston Globe says. “Expands the annals of Irish music in America . . . the music is passionate, tender and rambunctious,” adds The New York Times. For years, the five members of Cherish the Ladies have proven themselves worthy to live up to accolades like that, and in doing so have become one of the most engaging ensembles in the history of Irish music. And on March 6, Central Virginia music lovers will see for themselves what has made Cherish The Ladies the most successful and sought-after Irish-American group in Celtic music history. That’s when the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra will present the group in an 8:00 PM concert at E.C. Glass Auditorium for a special pre-St. Patrick’s Day celebration. At 7 PM, a pre-concert presentation on Irish stepdancing will be conducted by Lori Madden, instructor of Irish dancing classes at the Academy of Fine Arts. The symphony orchestra itself will not be onstage during this concert. The group consists of five instrumentalist/singers: Joanie Madden (flute, whistles & harmony vocals); Michelle Burke (lead vocals); Mary Coogan (guitar, banjo, mandolin); Mirella Murray (accordion) and Roisin Dillon (fiddle), all of whom now live in the United States. Four Irish stepdancers will travel with the group for its Lynchburg stop, and they will be joined onstage by stepdancing students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg. Taking its name from the name of a traditional Irish jig, the group initially won recognition as the first and only all-women traditional Irish band. In a relatively short time, they soon established themselves as musicians and performers without peer and have won many thousands of listeners and fans of their music. With their unique spectacular blend of virtuosi instrumental talents, beautiful vocals, captivating arrangements and stunning step dancing, Cherish the Ladies combines all the facets of Irish traditional culture and puts it forth in an immensely humorous and entertaining package. Recent years have seen the group traveling all over North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe, Australia and New Zealand performing in concert halls and international festivals. They are equally at home in front of a symphony orchestra, a performing arts center, a folk festival or even at the White House, and they have shared the stage with such noted entertainers as James Taylor, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, The Chieftains and dozens of symphony orchestras. The group has been named Best Musical Group of the Year by the BBC, Entertainment Group of the Year by the Irish Voice Newspaper, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall's International Group of the Year Award at the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and voted the Top North American Celtic act by NPR Radio’s “Thistle and Shamrock.” Cherish the Ladies has appeared on CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, Evening at Boston Pops, C-Span, PBS and National Public Radio in the United States and on BBC and RTE radio and television overseas. Concert tickets are $28 for adults ($25 for those over age 62), and $10 for people age 13-18 and students with a college ID. Young people 12 and under are admitted free if accompanied by an adult ticket holder. The concert is made possible in part by a grant from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Alliance. 1/8/10: Plenty of Music and Magic in Store From LSO in 2010 10/28/09: November 14 Motown Concert/Dance to Benefit LSO 7/23/09: LSO 2009-2010 Season; Subscription Concerts at Deep Discounts 7/9/09: LSO Elects New Board President, Members 4/20/09: Pianist Leon Bates to Make Three Appearances for LSO 4/3/09: A Great Mother's Day Gift! Music and Food for Mom’s Special Day 2/24/09: LSO To Benefit the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank 2/11/09: Rising Young Violinist Comes Home To Appear with LSO 12/2/08: Special Holiday Production to Benefit Symphony 11/5/08: Motown Concert/Dance to Benefit LSO 10/29/08: Head to the Sock Hop! 9/9/08: LSO Reduces Subscription Prices 8/4/08: LSO to Hold Auditions 7/22/08: LSO Gains Grants to Upgrade Library, Provide Youth Concerts |
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