Published: September 08, 2009 08:53 am      

Clinton Symphony orchestra to start season Sept. 19

MORRISON, Ill. — The Clinton Symphony Orchestra will open its 56th season with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 in the Morrison High School Auditorium.

Music Director and conductor Brian Dollinger will be joined by guest soloist Kelly Langenberg who will perform the Concerto No. 1 for french horn and orchestra by Richard Strauss. Langenberg makes her home in Chicago, and performs as a soloist in orchestras through a large section of the Midwest.

Dollinger opens his third season as conductor of the orchestra, and has chosen a program of “Young Adventures” for this opening concert. He begins with the overture to Rossini’s “Barber of Seville,” well-known in everything from cartoons to opera, followed by “Jeux d’Enfants (Child’s Play)” by French composer Georges Bizet.

The season will continue Nov. 1 with a concert of chamber music by musicians of the symphony at Zion Lutheran Church in Clinton, followed by a holiday concert Dec. 12 in Vernon Cook Theater at Clinton High School. The holiday concert has been absent from the season schedule for a number of years, and Dollinger will bring it back, with the participation of many area performers and organizations.

In February, the symphony will again showcase an area high school student selected during the annual Young Artist auditions. The concert Feb. 20 is in Centennial Auditorium at Sterling, Ill. High School, with a theme of “Water and Youth.” In addition to the young artist, the orchestra will play Mendelssohn’s “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage,” Smetana’s “The Moldau,” his impressions of that river in Bohemia, and end with selections from Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, “Swan Lake.”

To conclude the indoor concert season, the orchestra is a participant in commissioning a new work by American composer Joseph Schwantner, and will perform the Iowa premiere of the piece. The commission is part of Ford Made in America, and made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund. Dollinger has included Dvorak's “Symphony No. 8,” and Borodin’s “On the Steppes of Central Asia” on that program.

Season subscription tickets will be available at the door of the first concert, or by mail to Clinton Symphony Orchestra, PO Box 116, Clinton, IA 52733-0116. Adult subscriptions are $50 and students are $15.

Tickets for individual concerts will available two weeks in advance from England Music Center in Clinton, Fitzgerald Pharmacy in Morrison and Grummert’s Hardware in Sterling, or at the door of the concert. Individual concert tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for students. Children in eighth grade and younger are admitted free.

The Symphony’s Web site at www.clintonsymphony.org will have full information, including program notes for the pieces to be played and directions to the concert venues.