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Contact:
Public Relations Director
The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra
Phone: 407/896-6700 x 223
Fax: 407/896-5512
gmiller@orlandophil.org
www.orlandophil.org |
(Orlando, FL – January 28, 2008) – The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates the works of artist Norman Rockwell and American composers at the seventh concert in its 2007-08 Phil at Carr Series, titled Rockwell Rhapsody. The concert is held on Saturday, March 1, 2008, 8:00 PM at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, 401 W. Livingston Street, Orlando. The concert is sponsored by the University of Central Florida. The Composition Sponsors are Mr. and Mrs. Chuck & Lynn Steinmetz. The Orlando Sentinel is the Title Sponsor of the Phil at Carr Series.
Conducted by Music Director Christopher Wilkins, Rockwell Rhapsody is presented in collaboration with the Orlando Museum of Art and the touring exhibition, American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell.
Highlighting this concert is a performance of a work created by composer Stella Sung, commissioned by the Orlando Philharmonic and the Akron Symphony. The piece, titled Rockwell Reflections, will be performed with live projections of Norman Rockwell paintings. Sung’s composition is written in five movements, each reflecting a painting by Rockwell. The program notes for this piece were written by Hansen Mulford, Head Curator of the Orlando Museum of Art. Mulford writes, "For Rockwell Reflections, Stella Sung chose five seminal paintings by Norman Rockwell (Artist Facing a Blank Canvas, The Stay at Homes, Checkers, Murder in Mississippi, and The Peace Corps) to use as points of departure for her compositions. Like Rockwell’s paintings, these compositions have a strong narrative quality though listeners are free to imagine their own stories and illustrate them with eyes closed."
Sung is a composer, pianist, and Professor of Music at the University of Central Florida's Department of Digital Media, and Director of UCF's Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology, and Entertainment (CREATE). She has received recognition and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, the MacDowell Colony and other leading music organizations. She has also won two Florida Individual Artist's Fellowships (sponsored by the Division of Cultural Affairs for the State of Florida), a 2005 Florida Artist's Enhancement Award, and the 2007-10 Phi Kappa Phi National Artist's Award. Rockwell Reflections is the second work of Sung's that has been commissioned by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. The first commission was Constellations, for the Orlando Philharmonic's 10th Anniversary season (2003), and also featured a multi-media presentation.
Rockwell Rhapsody also features works by American composers Copland, Gershwin and Ives. Included are Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and Billy the Kid, and Charles Ives Three Places in New England. Pianist Terrence Wilson joins the Philharmonic to perform George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Wilson, who has established a reputation as one of today's most gifted instrumentalists, is an active recitalist throughout the United States. He is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including the SONY ES Award for Musical Excellence, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Juilliard Petschek Award. He has also been featured on several radio and television broadcasts, including NPR's "Performance Today," WQXR radio in New York, and programs on the BRAVO Network, the Arts & Entertainment Network, and public television.
Tickets to Rockwell Rhapsody are presently on sale for $13, $26, $36, $48 and $62. Students can purchase half price tickets in select areas. To purchase tickets, phone 407-770-0071 or visit www.OrlandoPhil.org.
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