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Sage City Symphony to Present Free Winter Concert February 9
February 9 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST
Free
On Sunday, February 9, at 4:00 p.m. Sage City Symphony will present a Winter Concert at Greenwall Auditorium in the VAPA Building at Bennington College. Admission is free and open to all.
On the program: Concerto for Bassoon in B flat Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with soloist Gerald Lanoue; Symphony No. 4 in A Major (“Italian”) by Felix Mendelssohn; Bridget Anne Hart: An Irish Legacy, for narrator, wind quartet, and strings, by Robert Merfeld.
About Bassoonist Gerald Lanoue
Gerald Lanoue, D.M.A., a Bennington, Vermont, native, is an active bassoonist, conductor, and teacher in the Upstate New York and Southern Vermont area. As a freelance bassoonist, he plays with many organizations throughout the northeast, such as Albany Pro Musica, Saratoga Voices, Heliand Consort, and the Opera Company of Middlebury. He is the music director and conductor of the Music Company Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Sage City Symphony.
Lanoue received a doctorate from the University of Southern California, where he was an active orchestral and chamber musician serving as principal bassoon for Los Angeles Classical Ballet, the Bakersfield Symphony, and the American Youth Symphony. As a teacher, he has taught at Bennington College, the University of Vermont, Santa Monica College, and the University of California Riverside.
About Composer Robert Merfeld
During his career, Robert Merfeld has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America and collaborated with numerous prominent artists, including singers Jan de Gaetani, Lucy Shelton, and Dawn Upshaw, as well as violinists Stanley Ritchie and Arnold Steinhardt, and clarinetist Charles Neidich. He is currently on the faculties of Boston University, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and the Longy School of Music.
Robert Merfeld’s Bridget Anne Hart: An Irish Legacy was inspired by memories of departing the Irish homeland and settling in a new land, namely Vermont. The piece is set for narrator, winds, and strings, and presents several tunes any audience member will recognize.
About Music Director and Composer Michael Finckel
Having served as principal cellist during Sage City Symphony’s early years in the 1970s, and later as a commissioned composer and cello soloist, music director Michael Finckel continues the unique traditions and musical standards of the orchestra’s cofounder, Louis Calabro.
A native of Bennington, Vermont, Finckel’s formative studies were with his parents, both prominent musicians well known throughout the state. He later attended Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Bennington College, where he studied composition, conducting, and orchestration with Louis Calabro and Henry Brant. He has taught cello and composition at Bennington and Marymount Colleges, and at Princeton and Cornell Universities. As a member of the faculty of the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, he taught gifted junior and senior high school students from around the state. Currently living in New York City, Finckel is engaged in an active multiple career as soloist, chamber musician, composer, teacher, and conductor. As a cellist he has performed with orchestral and chamber ensembles in venues from coast to coast and across Europe. He performs and coaches each summer at the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and the Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum of the East at Bennington College.
About Sage City Symphony
Cofounded in 1972 by composer Louis Calabro and Christine Graham as a community and college orchestra with close ties to Bennington College, Sage City Symphony gave its first concert in 1973. At the time, it was one of only a handful of orchestras in the country to commission and premiere new works. Today the symphony performs the traditional classical repertoire as well as contemporary music, commissioning and premiering new pieces each season, with the mission of presenting programs that are beyond the usual ambition of community orchestras and that offer a challenging playing opportunity to local musicians. The symphony attracts a high caliber of dedicated amateur and professional players who travel from throughout Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts for weekly rehearsals during the concert season. Auditions are not required, and academic credit is available for Bennington College students who participate. Information about joining the symphony, as well as COVID protocols observed at rehearsals and concerts, is available at www.SageCitySymphony.org.
Sage City Symphony is a registered federal non-profit organization in the State of Vermont that relies entirely on generous donations, gifts in kind, grants, and volunteer services from individuals, local foundations, businesses, and sponsors. Donations are gratefully received by mail at Sage City Symphony, PO Box 547, Shaftsbury, VT 05262 or online via www.SageCitySymphony.org. Concerts are always free and open to all.
