"Made in New Hampshire"
February 13
Nashua Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Jonathan McPhee, Music Director
Diane Cushing, Director of Choral Activities
Philip Lima, Baritone
Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Keefe Memorial Auditorium (Directions)
Known for its natural beauty and steeped in history, New Hampshire has inspired more than its share of masterworks. From West Side Story and Porgy & Bess to Bernard Herrmann's Oscar-winning music from The Devil and Daniel Webster and the state premiere of NH composer Joseph Schwantner's luminous Chasing Light... we've made the connections - you just enjoy the music!
BUY TICKETS online now or call 603.595.9156 to speak to our box office staff.
Back to Top
Nashua Symphony Orchestra and Chorus will tour NH
The NSO & Chorus will take the "Made in New Hampshire" program on the road in February, bringing this wonderful music to Concord, Plymouth, and Keene:
"Made in New Hampshire" tour Sponsor:
Additional major support from: Ford Made in America
National Endowment for the Arts
the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts
Keene Performance generously supported by Putnam Foundation
Back to Top
NH composer's work part of national project
Known for his dramatic and unique style and as a gifted orchestral colorist, Joseph Schwantner is one of the most prominent American composers today. Mr. Schwantner's work, Chasing Light... is part of a national commissioning consortium project called Ford Made in America. The piece itself is a musical exploration of the changing impressions given by the shifting light in the NH landscape near his home in Spofford. We are fortunate to have such a distinguished composer in our state, and the NSO is honored to share his shimmering new work with New Hampshire audiences.
About his Chasing Light... Mr. Schwantner has written:
One of the special pleasures of living in rural New Hampshire is experiencing the often brilliant and intense early morning sunrises, reminding one of Thoreau's words, "Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me" (Walden). Chasing Light... draws its spirit, energy and inspiration from the celebration of vibrant colors and light that penetrate the morning mist as it wafts through the trees in the high New England hills...Those images [...] helped fire my musical imagination.
Back to Top
Baritone Philip Lima
Acclaimed baritone Philip Lima will join the NSO for selections from Porgy & Bess, and to narrate a suite from Bernard Herrmann's Oscar-winning film score to The Devil & Daniel Webster.
In recent seasons, Philip Lima has appeared in leading baritone roles with opera companies across the United States and in Germany is a wide range of traditional and contemporary repertory, including La Cenerentola, Cos“ fan tutte, Madama Butterfly,
The Mikado, Pagliacci, Samson et Dalila, Semele, Kurt Weill's Die BŸrgschaft and The Rise and all of the City of Mahagonny, Robert Ward's The Crucible, Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis, and the world premieres of Nathan Davis' JAZZ OPERA - Just Above My Head and Leslie Burrs' Vanqui.
Praised as a "commanding, intelligent stage presence," Mr. Lima's 2005 performance of Schubert's Winterreise with pianist Beverly Orlove was described by The Boston Phoenix as one of Boston's "Unforgettable Classical Events of 2005."
Back to Top
Tour performances reprise "Ripple Effect" piece
Dover composer Kevin Siegfried's work, "Help is on the Way", is a setting of Nashua high-school student poetry for voices and strings, produced as part of the Nashua Symphony Association's "Ripple Effect" project and premiered in 2009. The work explores students' varied viewpoints and emotions regarding our changing environment. For the upcoming performances in Concord, Plymouth, and Keene, the NSO and Symphony Chorus under Director of Choral Activities Diane Cushing will be joined by choirs made up of young people from each of those regions, including the Bow High School Chamber Singers, Conway's Kennet High School Choir, and the Keene State College Concert Choir.
Michelle Nickerson, who serves as Choral Director at Bow High, remarks that "The Bow High School Chamber Singers are thrilled to be included in this project. The musical setting of the poem "Help is on the Way" is very moving and the subject strongly resonates with my students. We are delighted to be a part of this collaboration."
Back to Top
Program designed with NH connections in mind
Other New Hampshire connections on the program include The Devil & Daniel Webster, a narrated suite from the Oscar-winning score by legendary film composer Bernard Herrmann. Part of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story was composed at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, as was Dubose Hayward's play Porgy & Bess, which inspired Gershwin's operatic masterpiece.
Back to Top
NSO Principal bass will play on NH-made instrument
The NSO's principal bassist, Volker Nahrmann, will be performing at these "Made in New Hampshire" concerts on an instrument made by famed American luthier Abraham Prescott, who worked out of Concord, NH. The so-called "Prescott bass" was constructed from spruce and maple in 1835 in Concord, and restored by Mr. Nahrmann in his Billerica studio.
Back to Top
FANFARE 2010 is March 12
Join us for a memorable evening at the Crowne Plaza to benefit the Nashua Symphony Orchestra & Chorus featuring Jonathan McPhee leading a "little big-band" drawn from the NSO's incomparable winds and brass sections!
FANFARE is the season's most entertaining dinner and auction event. You'll enjoy a 3-course dinner, exhilarating live and silent auctions with professional auctioneer Kathy Kingston, fun games and, of course, music.
TICKETS are $75 (table of ten for $700): Register by Tuesday, March 9, 2010. You can ORDER ONLINE, call us at (603) 595-9156, or visit our office.
Back to Top
