Published: October 26, 2009 08:50 am      

Symphony will perform Sunday at Zion Lutheran

CLINTON — Sixteen musicians from the Clinton Symphony Orchestra will perform Sunday in four chamber music ensembles. The concert is an added feature to the symphony’s subscription series, and will begin at 3 p.m. in the sanctuary of Zion Lutheran Church, 439 Third Ave. South, in Clinton.

Scheduled for performance is a brass quintet, a clarinet quartet, a string trio and a woodwind quintet. The two quintet groups are ongoing ensembles, and are known in the area as the Sterling Brass Quintet and the Whiteside Woodwind Quintet. The quartet and trio are made up of friends from the symphony who enjoy playing together, and for listeners.

Mark Bressler, a symphony board member, designed the performance, and will play tuba in the brass group. He is a resident of Mount Carroll, Ill., and is a music teacher in the West Carroll schools. He is joined by trumpets Aaron White and Jon James, and Kevin O'Keefe, horn, all of Sterling, Ill., and trombonist Ryan Neumann, of Morrison, Ill.

The woodwind quintet members are flute, Crystal Duffee, a native of Morrison, oboe, Nicole Kotman, who teaches music at River Bend schools, clarinet, Emily Bressler, a music teacher in West Carroll schools, horn, Vanessa Leavitt of Bettendorf, and bassoonist Cheryl Neumann, of Morrison.

Four long-standing friends make up the clarinet quartet. They are David Bean of Morrison, the symphony board president and long-time principal, Don Jevne, of Morrison, who played with the symphony for many years, Ed McMahon of Clinton, and Emily Bressler.

Heather Steffes, violin, who lives in Erie and teaches orchestra at Moline, Ill., High School, Benjamin Schantz, violin, a native of Sterling and recent graduate of Southern Illinois University, and Benjamin Lorentzen, who has a masters degree in viola performance from the University of Wisconsin and has a studio of violin and viola students in the Quad-Cities, make up the the string trio.

Music selected for performance by the four groups includes a trio by late 19th century composer Antonin Dvorak, quintets by early 20th century composers Victor Ewald and Paul Hindemith, and a quartet by late 20th century composer Vaclav Nelhybel.

Students through eighth grade are always admitted free to the symphony’s performances. Older student tickets are $5 and adult tickets are $12. Advance tickets for the performance are available at England Music Center in Clinton, Fitzgerald Pharmacy in Morrison and Grummert’s Hardware in Sterling. Tickets are also available at the door of the concert.