School of the Arts, music department present the Chamber Orchestra
The Chamber Orchestra of Southwest Virginia presents its first concert of the season Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 4 and 5, as part of the University Chamber Music Series.
The program features four guest soloists and includes works by Benjamin Britten and J.S. Bach. Performances take place in the Squires Recital Salon on the Virginia Tech campus at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.
Founded in the fall of 1992, the Chamber Orchestra of Southwest Virginia is a 28-member ensemble comprised of Virginia Tech Music Department faculty and additional professional musicians from Cleveland, Columbus, New York City, Boston, Miami and Virginia. They are committed to performing a varied repertory of music for small orchestra.
A featured work on the program will be Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with tenor Steven Stolen and hornist Wallace Easter.
Steven Stolen enjoys an eclectic and successful career as a concert and stage singer throughout the United States. He has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and Tafelmusik in Toronto. In 1998, he made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.
A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Catholic University of America, Wallace Easter began his professional performing career with the U.S. Marine Band, which toured the United States and performed frequently at the White House. In 1981, Easter joined the faculty of the Music Department at Virginia Tech and the Roanoke Symphony as principal horn. He has been a featured soloist with many orchestras in the mid-Atlantic region and also has performed in recitals, professional conferences, and music festivals in the United States and in Europe. Easter is featured on the most recent CD release of the Hornists' Nest, an album titled The Fripperies.
The program will also feature J. S. Bach’s Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin with oboist Robert Sorton and violinist Akemi Takayama.
Robert Sorton is Professor of Oboe at The Ohio State University and Principal Oboe in the Roanoke Symphony. For 14 years, he was assistant principal oboe of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He also has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Miami Philharmonic, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and the Charlotte Symphony. An active chamber music performer, Sorton also has performed concerti with numerous orchestras. From 1993 to 1999, Sorton served as principal and solo oboe of the Eastern Music Festival. He has recorded with the Detroit Symphony (London Decca Records), the Roanoke Symphony, and OBOHIO.
Akemi Takayama is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music where she holds an Artist Diploma and a master’s of music. Since joining the Audubon Quartet in 1997, she has toured and taught extensively in the United States, England, and Israel. She has served on the faculties of the Chautauqua Institute in New York, the Idyllwild School for the Arts in California, the Marrowstone Music Festival in Washington, and in the Audubon Quartet's annual String Quartet Seminar in Virginia. Her recordings with the Audubon Quartet are on the Centaur and Composers Recordings labels. She assumes the post of Concertmaster of the Roanoke Symphony this fall.
Admission is $8 for students/seniors and $12 for faculty/staff/general. Tickets will be sold at the door prior to the performances and in advance by calling (540) 231-5615.
For more information call the School of the Arts Information Line at (540) 231-5200. For information on other School of the Arts events, visit the website at http://www.sota.vt.edu.
