As summer turns to fall, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) will cover the state from top to bottom for its Made in Vermont Statewide Tour. This Saturday, Sept. 23, at 7:30 p.m., the orchestra will perform in at the Mahaney Center for the Arts in Middlebury on the fourth day of the tour. The concert program will include Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante,” Gluck’s “Dance of the Furies” from Orfeo, Britten’s “Simple Symphony,” and the new work “Breath” by Vermont composer Paul Dedell.
“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Middlebury College. The Mahaney Center is an acoustically and visually stunning space and we look forward to performing there again,” said VSO Executive Director Benjamin Cadwallader.
The Made in Vermont Statewide Tour will be a unique experience for even the most seasoned classical music concertgoers, and a delight for newcomers. First, renowned violin soloist Pamela Frank, a long-standing friend and colleague of VSO Music Director Jaime Laredo, will perform Mozart’s famous “Sinfonia Concertante,” a richly inventive double concerto for violin and viola. Laredo will perform the piece on viola from the podium while also leading the VSO.
The second notable aspect of the statewide tour is VSO’s tradition of premiering a commissioned piece by a Vermont composer — this year, Paul Dedell’s “Breath.” This commission is a pioneering new venture between the VSO and the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, representing the VSO Award for Best Integration of Music into Film, given to filmmaker Jesse Kreitzer in 2016.
“This commission and premiere are a year in the making, as well as a work in progress,” explained Cadwallader. “This is an innovative partnership is new to us as well, because few public orchestras give awards to filmmakers for an original score. We are thrilled to reveal the process by which composers, filmmakers and orchestras work together to enhance the visual elements of film with music. What makes this partnership even sweeter is having so many Vermonters involved too.”
From the VSO’s beginning in 1934, the orchestra has toured the Green Mountains. “Tours are at the heart of what makes us the Vermont Symphony Orchestra,” said Cadwallader. “This tour is the perfect representation of us living our mission as we employ Vermont musicians, composers and filmmakers to create new art and share it widely with communities throughout the state.”
The VSO Made in Vermont concert will take place on Saturday, Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m., in Robison Hall at the Mahaney Center for the Arts. General admission tickets are $25 for adults; $10 for students (children ages 6-17 and full-time college students with ID); free for children ages 5 and under. Tickets are available at the Middlebury College box office at 802-443-MIDD (6433) or middlebury.edu/arts/tickets, or at vso.org.
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