MusicaNova Orchestra Opens Season with Mid-Century Masters

MusicaNova Orchestra (MNO) opens its 15th season performing in the Valley of the Sun with "Mid-Century Masters," featuring music from composers as well known for film scores as they are for symphonic and choral works. The concert is Sunday, October 29, 2017 from 4:00 to 5:30 PM at Central United Methodist Church, 1875 North Central Avenue, at Palm Lane in the Phoenix Central Arts District.
Tickets are $20 and $15, available online at www.musicanovaaz.com and at the door. Youth under 18 are free with a paid admission.

The concert includes symphonies by Oscar-winner Malcom Arnold and by Richard Arnell, with whom MNO Music Director Warren Cohen studied. The orchestra will be joined by musicians from Harmony Project-Phoenix on Ralph Vaughan-Williams "Concerto Grosso for String Orchestras," written for three orchestras with players at different levels of ability.

Harmony Project musicians will play in the "Ad Lib" (novice) and "Tutti" (intermediate) orchestra parts, while the MNO professional orchestra plays the "Concertino" (expert) part. The world premiere of "Stand in the Center and Extend Outward" by MNO Composition Fellow J. M. Gerraughty caps the program.

As part of MNO's second year as Artist-in-Residence at Tempe High School, outstanding student-musicians from Tempe high schools will sit in with the orchestra for the full program.

This season's orchestra concert schedule includes three additional programs, all in 2018: "A Day with Papa Haydn," with his morning, mid-day, and evening symphonies, on January 27 and 28; J. S. Bach's tremendous Eastertide oratorio "St. John Passion" on Palm Sunday, March 25; and "Ports of Call," celebrating music from around the world, on April 22.

MusicaNova is a professional symphony orchestra founded in the Valley in 2003. MNO also presents its Young Artists Concert and free Community Concert Series at venues in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe, conducts extensive educational outreach with Valley schools, and sponsors the unique MNO Composition Fellows Program for hands-on mentoring of emerging composers.

MNO Orchestra Concerts are supported by grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, and Tempe Arts Grants. Call 480-585-4485 for more information, or visit www.musicanovaaz.com.