THE UNBROKEN CIRCLE Comes to Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in April

Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra will present Emmy Award-winning composer and conductor Jeff Beal leading the orchestra in a program titled The Unbroken Circle,  featuring works by Beal, Richard Strauss, and Ottorino Respighi at Second Church in Newton on April 7th.  For tickets and information visit proarte.org.  

A five-time Emmy Award-winner known for writing soundtracks to numerous films and television series, including House of Cards and Monk, Beal will conduct Pollock Overture from his critically acclaimed score to the 2000 film directed by and starring Ed Harris.  He will also showcase his 2019 suite The Great Circle, a response to California’s tragic wildfires and mudslides in 2017–18. The musical narrative in five parts commemorates the fires, floods, and recovery of Ventura County, with 5 movements dedicated to the elements of nature that can both destroy and regenerate: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, (re)Birth.

Boston Symphony Orchestra hornist Michael Winter is the featured soloist for Strauss’ Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, op. 11.  Winter, who was born and raised in Southern California,  joined the BSO in 2012 and currently serves on the faculty of New England Conservatory of Music.  The concerto and soloist share a paternal connection: Richard Strauss composed his majestic first horn concerto for his father Franz, and Winter’s first horn teacher was his paternal grandfather James.

Ottorino Respighi composed several suites based on music from earlier centuries.  His enchanting Gli Uccelli (The Birds) presents orchestral arrangements of Baroque harpsichord pieces inspired by birds. In this piece Ottorino Respighi presents classical European birds, using music from earlier times as his inspiration. The core of the work is a selection from 5 seventeenth- and eighteenth-century composers’ compositions for harpsichord or lute, here transformed into an orchestral work.

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