The Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra kicks off its fifteenth season… with two concerts at the end of October celebrating our young musicians. Nelson Moneo, winner of the 2011 Don Chrysler Concerto Competition, will play Sibelius’ Violin Concerto. The orchestra will also be joined by young string players from the School District 61 Festival Orchestra in Bizet’s Carmen Suite. The concert will be rounded out by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
The Christmas concerts, will present highlights from Handel’s Messiah with the Sooke Philharmonic Chamber Players and the Sooke Philharmonic Chorus, as well as music for the festive season by Bach, Vaughan Williams and Leopold Mozart.
In February, the orchestra will be joined by internationally renowned soprano Nancy Argenta, singing operatic favourites by Handel and Mozart. Nancy hails from the Nelson area and now makes her home in Victoria. The program also features Mozart’s Paris Symphony (No. 31).
In March the Sooke Philharmonic Chorus and Chamber Players will present a concert version of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, conducted by Wade Noble. This all-Purcell evening will include the Chacony and two of his string Fantasias.
The June concert will pay tribute to the Canadian composer, Malcolm Forsyth, who died in July 2011, by performing Siyajabula! We Rejoice. This work was commissioned in 1994 as a season opener for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, to celebrate the composer’s 60th birthday, and South Africa, Forsyth’s birth place. Also on the program is Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, played by young Victoria soloist Karnsiri Laothamatas. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 will complete the program.
The October and June concerts take place in the Sooke Community Theatre and Alix Goolden Hall, and the Chamber Players concerts are in the Sooke Baptist Church and New St. Mary’s Church (Metchosin).
The season ends with the Philharmonic Fling, our annual free outdoor concert at Ed Macgregor Park in Sooke on July, 15 2012.
Performances will be at New St. Mary’s Church in Metchosin on Sunday, Dec. 4, Sunday Feb. 26 and Sunday April 1.
For more information, contact Sooke Philharmonic Society at:
www.sookephil.ca
(250) 642-2849
Email: info@sookephil.ca.