Joshua Bell Joins the Summer Festival Orchestra Tonight

The Jacobs School of Music's 2011 Symphonic Series, a highlight of the Indiana University Summer Festival of the Arts, begins Friday, July 1, at IU Auditorium with a performance by violin virtuoso and Jacobs faculty member Joshua Bell and the Summer Festival Orchestra, conducted by Michael Stern.

Bell, whose career has catapulted him to international stardom since receiving an Artist Diploma from the Jacobs School in 1989, will perform Bruch's Scottish Fantasy. Additional works on the program are The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas, The Firebird Suite by Stravinsky and Variations on "America" by Ives. All will be under the baton of Stern, now in his sixth season as music director of the Kansas City Symphony. Stern returns to Bloomington following his performance with the Festival Orchestra in 2006.

Marking the two-year anniversary of her first Bloomington performance since her appointment to the Jacobs School faculty, Jorja Fleezanis will serve as concertmaster for the opening concert. She also served as concertmaster for the series' kickoff the past two years.

The following evening, July 2, the orchestra will repeat the program at Chicago's Ravinia Festival, becoming the first collegiate ensemble to be presented as a featured festival ensemble there.

Other world-class conductors leading this distinguished group of Jacobs School of Music faculty, students and invited guests include Bramwell Tovey and Giancarlo Guerrero.

Tovey, music director of the Vancouver Symphony, conducts a July 21 program including a full orchestral version of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Mahler's Symphony No. 1. In addition to his podium duties, he will also be piano soloist for one of his own compositions, Urban Runway.

Timothy Lees, concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will serve as concertmaster for the second concert in the series.

Nashville Symphony Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero returns to Bloomington Aug. 5 to apply his Grammy Award-winning style to Rossini's William Tell Overture, Respighi's The Pines of Rome and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

Jacobs faculty member Alexander Kerr will assume concertmaster duties for the final Festival Orchestra concert. Kerr was concertmaster of both the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and is now concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony and principal guest concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Additional faculty members performing with the Festival Orchestra this summer include Stephen Wyrczynski, viola; Kate Lukas and Thomas Robertello, flute; Howard Klug, clarinet; Jeff Nelsen, horn; Edward Cord, John Rommel and Joey Tartell, trumpet; Carl Lenthe and M. Dee Stewart, trombone; Daniel Perantoni, tuba; and John Tafoya, percussion.

Guests musicians include alumni Steven Moeckel, concertmaster of the Phoenix Symphony; Tony Ross, principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra; and Kristin Ahlstrom, violinist with the St. Louis Symphony; as well as Owen Lee, principal bass of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; William James, principal percussion with the St. Louis Symphony; Jeff Rathbun, oboist with The Cleveland Orchestra; and Marc Vallon, professor of bassoon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In addition to the three Festival Orchestra performances, the Jacobs School's Symphony Orchestra will perform two concerts in the IU Auditorium this summer, all led by regular guest conductor Cliff Colnot. Colnot is principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's contemporary MusicNOW series and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

The first Symphony Orchestra concert, July 13, will feature Impromptu for String Orchestra by Sibelius and Symphony No. 10 by Shostakovich. The second and final concert, Aug. 10, will include Haydn's Symphony in G Major and selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

All orchestral events during the 2011 IU Summer Festival of the Arts will take place at 8 p.m. at the IU Auditorium. The three performances by the Festival Orchestra cost $15 each for the general public and $8 for any full-time student. The two Symphony Orchestra performances are free.

The IU Auditorium box office is open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Call 812-855-1103 for ticket information, or visit http://www.iuauditorium.com to purchase tickets online.

The Summer Music series within the IU Summer Festival of the Arts is sponsored in part by WFIU Public Radio, WTIU Public TV, the Bloomington Herald-Times and Lamar Outdoor Advertising.

 

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