Tag Archives: Great Eras Series

GR Symphony opens Great Eras series with music of Baroque on Oct. 12

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Principal Oboist Ellen Sherman (Photo supplied)

By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk, Grand Rapids Symphony

J.S. Bach’s “Air on the G String” is an all-time audience favorite melody. It’s a sure bet you’ve heard it before.
 
It’s part of a larger work, Bach’s Orchestra Suite No. 3, which the Grand Rapids Symphony performs on Friday, Oct. 12, in St. Cecilia Music Center’s Royce Auditorium.
 
Principal Oboist Ellen Sherman is soloist on The Baroque Concert: Bach and Beyond, which includes music from the Baroque plus a contemporary piece by Brazilian’s most famous composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, that’s inspired by the music of Bach. It’s the first of four concerts in the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Great Eras series.
 
Marcelo Lehninger leads the Grand Rapids Symphony at 8pm Oct. 12 in Grand Rapids plus a repeat of the entire concert at 8pm Saturday, Oct. 13 in Holland at the Jack Miller Center for Musical Arts at Hope College.
 
The Grand Rapids Symphony also plays a shorter version of the concert at 10am Oct. 12 at St. Cecilia for the Coffee Classics series. The one-hour concerts are held without intermission, and doors open at 9am for complementary coffee and donuts.

GR Symphony plays ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ music from court of King Charles II of England

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British Violinist and Conductor Garry Clarke joins the Grand Rapids Symphony to open the its Crowe Horwath Great Eras series Oct. 20. (Supplied photo)

By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk

 

Grand Rapids Symphony

 

The music of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi are well known, but many more composers flourished in the 17th and early 18th century.

 

England was in turmoil for decades in the middle of the 17th century. King Charles I was deposed and beheaded, and Oliver Cromwell took power as Lord Protector until his death ended the military dictatorship and ushered in the restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II.

 

The “merry monarch,” one of the most popular ever to rule England, loved a good time. He favored French music, but he also encouraged the development of English composers who flourished under his patronage.

 

British violinist and conductor Garry Clarke joins the Grand Rapids Symphony to open the its Crowe Horwath Great Eras series at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, with “Charlie’s Angels: The Baroque Concert” in St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids.

 

The program also will be repeated at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 at the Jack H. Miller Center at Hope College in Holland.

 

Highlights from those concerts, featuring music of Henry Purcell, Jean-Baptiste Lully and others, will be performed at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 20 for the Porter Hills Coffee Classics, a one-hour version of the Great Eras concert, held without intermission. Doors open at 9 a.m. for coffee and donuts.

 

For more information about this performance or other Grand Rapids Symphony performances, visit www.grsymphony.org.