Heartland Symphony Orchestra’s Winter Concert Series will be held Saturday, December 1st at the Charles D. Martin Auditorium of the Little Falls Community High School at 7:30pm and Sunday, December 2nd in Brainerd at 2:30 p.m. at the Tornstrom Auditorium. The theme for the Winter Concert Series is “Family Adventure”. It will feature music from “The Snowman”, Howard Blake’s fantastical tale of a boy’s adventures with his snowy friend. The narrator for the performance will be Bill Satre. Soloist Jennifer Pelowski will sing “Walking in the Air”, the popular song from the soundtrack of “The Snowman”.
Howard Blake is an English composer, conductor, and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years and produced more than 650 works. Blake’s most successful work is his soundtrack for Channel 4’s 1982 film The Snowman including the song “Walking in the Air”
Another highlight of the Winter program will be youth dancers from “Just for Kix” performing with the orchestra’s performance of the “Pizzicato Polka” by Johann Strauss, Jr. and “The Sleeping Beauty Waltz” by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovzky. The program also includes a performance of the Finale from Symphony No. 3 in C minor by Camille Saint-Saens. For this piece, at the Brainerd performance, the HSO will be joined by players from the Brainerd High School Orchestra. As in years past, HSO Conductor and Music Director, Dr. Alexander Corbett, visited schools in Brainerd to work with students of the Brainerd High School Orchestra to prepare them for performing this challenging work with the orchestra. The program concludes with the popular “Christmas Sing-A-Long” arranged by Bob Cerulli.
Heartland Symphony, a 45-piece symphony orchestra representing central Minnesota, holds three concert series a year in both Little Falls and Brainerd. It is now in its 42nd season.
Heartland Symphony Orchestra concerts are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Five Wings Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Funds. In Little Falls, the Laura Jane Musser Fund provides additional support.
Tickets are free to youth and students K-12 or $12 for adults and $10 for Seniors. Tickets may be purchased at the door, by mail, or online at www.HeartlandSymphony.com. Call 1-800-826-1997 for more information.
Conductor Chats highlight Winter Concert Program
This is the third season for Dr. Alexander Corbett who has enjoyed coming up with new and exciting ways get the audience involved. One such idea is the implementation of “conductor chats,” which are intimate conversations between the conductor and audience members that occur just prior to each concert. Each piece on the Winter Concert Series features a unique aspect meant to pique the interest of a family crowd. For example, Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony” features an organ, a vast and mysterious instrument that is relatively foreign to the symphony orchestra. He will discuss its fascinating features and unlock the mystery behind it, explaining along the way about how it is an integral part of the piece. The next two pieces, Johann Strauss, Jr.’s “Pizzicato Polka,” and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty Waltz” are both dances, yet they are most often experienced just as standalone pieces of music. As part of this program, audiences will get to see members from Just for Kix dancing along to these timeless melodies, which is a rare and special experience. Dr. Corbett will point this out during his chat, as well as how each piece inspires specific motions from the dancers. Dr. Corbett will wrap up his chat by explaining how the final work, Howard Blake’s “The Snowman,” mixes music and narration. He will point out certain spots in the work where the narration and music combine in very clever ways and urge the audience to listen for them.