Jan
26
Gateway Chamber Orchestra presents Enchanting Tales
Franklin, TN (January 26, 2016) Gateway Chamber Orchestra proudly presents Enchanting Tales, 7:30 pm, February 8, at the Franklin Theatre. The Monday evening concert spotlights award-winning composer Jeffrey Wood’s world premiere of Different Bodies. The performance opens with Rossini’s charming Il signor Bruschino Overture, taking the audience through a full spectrum of contrasting musical fables and emotional tales, concluding with Maurice Ravel’s popular Mother Goose, a magical work that tells the story of Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tales.
Inspired by Kenneth Sherman’s book written about the infamous Elephant Man, Different Bodies, features acclaimed baritone, Jeffrey Williams. Composer Wood says, “Sherman’s book gives a personal point of view that allows Joseph Merrick a voice that is at once tragic and ironic: Sherman’s Merrick is a man fully aware of his strange appearance and bizarre life but oddly still able to embrace his peculiar reality.
At the same time, Sherman manages to make this most unusual individual a kind of Everyman: a marginalized person, an outsider looking in; physically unable to be part of the world around him, but ultimately unable to distance himself entirely from it. He contemplates his place in the day to day life of the world around him, trying to understand humanity from his unique perspective as an outsider to that humanity, while at the same time still being a part of it. Sherman’s Elephant Man is more than the sum of Merrick’s life and extraordinary physical appearance: it is a deeply human story.”
Enchanting Tales with Jeffrey Williams, baritone
Monday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m.
The Franklin Theatre
Giochinno Rossini – Il signor Bruschino Overture
Jeffrey Wood – Different Bodies (world première)
Maurice Ravel – Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose)
FEBRUARY 8, 2016, Single CONCERT Tickets:
Adults: $25 | $30 | $40 | Student/Active: $15 • $20 • $30
Tickets for February 8 concert: CLICK HERE
SPRING SUBSCRIPTION SERIES PRICING (Two concerts*Best Value)
Adults: $40 | $50 | $65
Student/Military: $24 | $32.50 | $50
Two-concert series: Spring Subscriptions are available by phone at (615) 538-2076, and online by clicking HERE.
Box Office hours: Sunday & Monday, Noon-5:00 pm
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JEFFREY WOOD did his undergraduate work in composition and piano at Oberlin College and graduate work at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he earned Master’s degrees in piano and composition and a Ph.D. in composition, working under Gilbert Kalish and David Lewin.
Wood’s compositions have been performed and recorded throughout the country and have received many awards including those from BMI, ASCAP, as well as the Bates Memorial Prize. He was the highest prizewinner at the Stroud Festival International Competition in Great Britain and was named Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Music Teacher’s National Association. Wood was one of eight composers awarded in the 1995 Young American’s Art Song Competition sponsored by G. Schirmer/Associated Music Publishers. Wood’s oratorio Lamentationes Ieremiæ Prophetæ (Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet)for chorus, soloists and orchestra was premièred at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. This work was subsequently nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Wood has held the Individual Artist Fellowship in Composition from the Tennessee Arts Commission and was awarded the Richard M. Hawkins Award for scholarship and creativity by Austin Peay State University. As a pianist Wood has worked with composers such as Roger Sessions, Thea Musgrave, Mario Davidovsky, Frederic Goossen, Alan Hovhaness and Ernst Křenek in performances of their keyboard music. He is presently Professor of Music at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee.
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The Gateway Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gregory Wolynec, was formed in 2008 and is recognized as one of the leading new American ensembles. Comprised of professional musicians from Middle Tennessee and beyond, the GCO specializes in presenting traditional masterworks, overlooked treasures, and contemporary American compositions. The GCO’s recordings have received critical acclaim in publications such as the American Record Guide and Fanfare Magazine. Engaging 5,000 Middle Tennessee students annually with classical music through free performances, innovative educational outreach, and interactive Children’s Concerts, the GCO is committed to building new audiences for tomorrow. Visit gatewaychamberorchestra.com to learn more.
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