The Asbury University Orchestra will present one of their two concerts this semester which will showcase the orchestra’s ability to perform a diverse selection of musical pieces. The performance will take place on Feb. 25 at Jameson Recital Hall from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. and is open to all Asbury students, as well as members of the Wilmore community. The concert will be free for all to attend.
The orchestra concert will be the first time the orchestra is performing this semester and will feature six pieces. Three of the pieces will be played by the entire orchestra, which includes the winds, brass, percussion and string instruments.
“The full orchestra is performing an arrangement of a Chorale Prelude by J.S. Bach based on the parable of the brides waiting and preparing for the bridegroom,” said Dr. Nathan Miller, Director of Asbury University Orchestra. The other two pieces are “A trippy and complex setting of a simple fiddle tune by Percy Grainger, called ‘Spoon River,’ and a contemporary piece by the Korean composer Son Hee Newbold, ‘Gravitas,’ that feels like a soundtrack to an epic movie.”
The three other pieces included in the performance will be played exclusively by the string instruments. While all the instruments are vital to the orchestra’s functioning, Dr. Miller explained that the string instruments are “the heart of the orchestra” and tend to play more notes than other sections.
The string orchestra will play a wide variety of music from playful and light to deeply intense and dramatic pieces.
“The string orchestra pieces are ‘Air’ by Norman Dello Joio, a four-movement work called ‘River Stories’ by Japanese composer Yukiko Nishimura, which reflects on four different impressions, or dimensions, or a river, and Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings,’ one of the most beautiful and famous pieces for string orchestra. The ‘Adagio’ is particularly challenging and is a big undertaking for our string section. The piece is thoughtful, nostalgic and somehow both sorrowful and hopeful,” explained Dr. Miller.
While certain concerts that Asbury’s orchestra performs have a specific theme or are aimed at a particular audience, this concert does not have a particular theme in mind. Rather, Dr. Miller said that it is a time set aside for students and community members to simply enjoy the beauty of music.
The next time that the Asbury orchestra will perform pieces this semester for Asbury students and the Wilmore community will be for the Sounds of Stage and Screen performance during Asbury’s Engaging Culture Week.
“The orchestra gives a few concerts each semester,” said Dr. Miller. “At their heart, each orchestra concert is an opportunity for the ensemble to use our gifts to glorify and worship God, to enrich the campus community through making something beautiful, and to provide the musicians and the audience time and space to reflect and contemplate things deeper than what’s for dinner or what project is due next.”
Photo courtesy of AU Strat Comm.
