Berkshire Symphony to Perform on Feb. 29
WILLIAMSTOWN - The Berkshire Symphony Orchestra will give a concert on Friday, Feb. 29, at 8 p.m. in Chapin Hall on the Williams College campus. There will also be a preconcert talk at 7:15 p.m. in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall in Bernhard Music Center. This free event is open to the public.The evening's program will consist of Felipe Lara's "Onda": David Kechley's "Wakeful Visions/Moonless Dreams: A Symphony in Four Movements"; Kevin Kaska's suite from the video game Lair, and George Gershwin's "An American in Paris."
"Wakeful Visions/Moonless Dreams" is a symphony in which each of the four movements finds its point of departure in a quote: the Bible (Hosea 8:7), a Japanese haiku about the sea, Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and the writings of Marcel Proust.
Since the 1968 premiere of "Second Composition for Large Orchestra" by the Seattle Symphony, Kechley has produced works in all genres, which have been performed by major orchestras, chamber groups, as well as colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad.
His music draws from a variety of sources including the "usual suspects" of 20th-century concert music, other concert composers from the past and present, and many forms of vernacular, popular and ethnic musics. Although these influences are generally integrated into a consistent style, the resulting musical narratives often create sharp contrasts between lyricism, virtuosity, and dramatic gesture.
Kechley's work has been recognized by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, North Carolina Arts Council, Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Barlow Foundation, and many of his pieces have been awarded prizes including "Five Ancient Lyrics on Poems" by Sappho, "Concerto for Violin and Strings," "In the Dragon's Garden" and "Restless Birds before the Dark Moon." One of his most recent works, "Bounce: Inventions, Interludes, and Interjections," for guitar and saxophone, was premiered at the World Saxophone Congress in July 2006 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, by the Ryoanji Duo.
Born in Seattle on March 16, 1947, Kechley was educated at the University of Washington, Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University. His teachers include Paul Tufts, Robert Suderburg, William Bergsma, James Beale, and Donald Erb. His music has been recorded and released on the Liscio Recordings, Albany Records, Reference Recording, and others.
Lara was born in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1979. Lara’s music has been performed in many festivals including Acanthes, Wellesley Composers Conference, June-In-Buffalo, 26th New Music and Arts Festival (Bowling Green, Ky.), Atlantic Center for the Arts, Domaine Forget, Bienal da Musica Brasileira Contemporanea, Newport Festival, Festival de Musica Nova, and others.
His music has also been performed by the Arditti Quartet, Le Nouvel Ensemble Modern, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), New York New Music Ensemble, Duo Diorama, Radnofsky Saxophone Quartet, Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, Triple Helix, and the Julliard Pierrot Ensemble. Recently the Arditti Quartet has performed his work Corde Vocale in the United States, Brazil and Luxemburg. As a finalist of the "Staubach Prize" Lara was commissioned by the International Musikinstitut Darmstadt to compose a new work for string quartet and live-electronics to be premiered at the 44th International Courses for New Music by the Arditti Quartet and the Experimentalstudio Freiburg.
Composer, arranger, record producer and conductor Kaska is one of America's leading young musical talents. His orchestral compositions, arrangements and orchestrations have been played by more than 50 symphony orchestras worldwide, including John Williams and Keith Lockhart with the Boston Pops Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra (five CDs), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (recorded on CD), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (recorded on CD), Maynard Ferguson and his Big Bop Nouveau Band, Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, the Seattle Philharmonic and the Port Angeles, Springfield , Berkshire and Cape Ann symphonies, among many others.
The Berkshire Symphony is conducted by Ronald Feldman and includes nearly 70 members, half of whom are students and half of whom are professional musicians. The ensemble presents four major concerts each season. In addition to performing the standards of orchestral repertoire, a recurring theme each year is the performance of contemporary works. Championing the works of living American composers has been an integral part of the mission of the symphony.
The final program in the spring features the winners of the Berkshire Symphony Student Soloist Competition. This event is a showcase for the talent at Williams College.
