Oboist Dan Frostman Joins the Champlain Symphony Orchestra at Town Hall Theatre, 10/11

The Champlain Philharmonic continues its innovative programming under music director Paul Gambill. The upcoming concert at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater features a world-premiere composition, a concerto featuring the oboe, and a sublime Dvorak symphony.

Dan Frostman is the soloist for the Vaughn Williams Oboe Concerto. Written during the height of World War Two, the concerto is pastoral in tone, its beauty underscored by famously complex and difficult writing for the strings. Frostman has degrees in oboe performance from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Hartt School of Music. He settled in Vermont in 2001 one and now works at Middlebury College.

The world premiere is "Lumière metamorphique" by C. Robert Wigness. The composer is currently professor emeritus at the University of Vermont and Affiliate Artist. He was principal trombonist with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra for 30 years, and trombonist with the Vermont Brass Quintet and the Vermont Brass Trio. He has recorded on the CRI label, and has been a guest conductor at music festivals as well as a guest clinician of trombone and electronic music throughout Vermont and New England.

Dvorak's 7th symphony was rapturously received at its premiere in 1885, with Dvorak himself conducting. It is structurally his most ambitious, and hints at his personal life - it's unofficially known as the "tragic" symphony, and seems to reference two deaths in his family - and reflects the larger political aspirations of the Czech people. The 7th symphony is generally thought to be Dvorak at his best.

The Champlain Philharmonic concert will be held at Town Hall Theater on Friday, October 11, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15 Adult, $12 Senior, $10 Student, under 12 free, and may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, at 382-9222, at the THT Box Office (Mon-Sat, noon-5pm) or at the door.