PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra tonight and Saturday will present two performances featuring both modern and classical music.
The Pops and Picnics concerts kick-off the symphony’s 84th season.
“Pops is not only a great kickoff to our season. It’s also an opportunity to enjoy music and community together,” said Jonathan Pasternack, Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra conductor and music director.
The first performance will be at 7 tonight at the The Sequim Boys &Girls Club, 400 W. Fir St., in Sequim, with the second at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Tickets to either evening are $20 for those 17 and older and $5 for youths 16 and younger, with proceeds benefitting the orchestra’s continued operation, according to a news release.
For tickets, contact the Symphony at 360-457-5579 or PASymphony@olypen.com.
“We’re going to preview some of the composers in the coming season, with shorter works such as Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, two pieces from Aaron Copland’s ‘Rodeo,’ and works by Mozart and Debussy,” Pasternack said.
The 65-member orchestra also will “play a bit of patriotic music, such as ‘America the Beautiful’ and a Sousa march.”
Further, the performances will include a “My Fair Lady” medley and selections from The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The Sequim Pops and Picnic also features a guest conductor — Marsha Melnick of Sequim.
Last March, at the Symphony’s annual Applause! Auction, Melnick bid on the opportunity to lead the orchestra, and as the winner she will conduct the overture to Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.”
To cap the concerts with a taste of opera, local singers Joel Yelland and Robin Reed will offer a duet from Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers.”
Concertgoers are invited to bring a picnic supper to enjoy at cabaret-style tables, while the Symphony provides the soft drinks, the popcorn, the dessert and the music.
For more information, visit www.PortAngeles Symphony.org.
Cellist Traci Winters, left, rehearses with violists Phil Morgan-Ellis, center, and Tyrone Beatty as the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra prepares for its concerts tonight and Saturday in Sequim and Port Angeles. — Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra.
