Barton College/Wilson Symphony Presents the “Downtown” Concert for the Wilson Community on Friday, Oct. 5

WILSON, N.C. — The Barton College/Wilson Symphony Orchestra will present their first concert of the 2012-2013 season on Friday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church located at 100 Green Street in Wilson. Open to the public at no charge, the “Downtown” Concert will feature baritone Joel Gay, the associate music director of the First United Methodist Church, singing arias and songs by Mozart, Bach, and Schubert. The program will also feature a concerto for two oboes by Vivaldi and Schubert’s Symphony No.5. The community is invited to attend.

“We are all so excited to present this gift to the Wilson community,” shared Mark N. Peterson, director of music at Barton College. “We have had wonderful support in the past, and this is not only our expression of thanks to our audience, but a way to introduce our orchestra to the wider public. The First United Methodist Church has a perfect acoustic for symphonic music, and our orchestra sounds wonderful there.”

Gay will perform three works with the orchestra: an aria “Non più andrai” from Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” the “ Quia fecit mihi magna” movement from Bach’s “Magnificat, and the romantic song “Staendchen” of Schubert.  The Vivaldi “Concerto for Two Oboes” will feature the orchestra’s principal oboist Deanne Renshaw and longtime orchestra member Robert Burkett.

Schubert was just 19 years old when he composed his Symphony No. 5. In Vienna in 1816, Mozart’s influence was still strongly felt, and, with this symphony, Schubert created the ultimate homage to his famous role model. With the exception of a few daring modulations and a handful of romantic harmonies, there is nothing in this work that Mozart would have found unusual or groundbreaking.  Rather, Schubert gave us a lively and scintillating work, infused with the best elements found in the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, his illustrious Viennese predecessors.

For additional information, please contact Laura Ashley Lamm at 252-399-6334 or email: lalamm@barton.edu.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.