PORT ANGELES — Two women — formidable artists from Port Angeles — step into the spotlight for the Port Angeles Symphony’s season finale this weekend.
Violinist Heather Ray of Port Angeles will play “The Lark Ascending,” a beloved piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Kristin Quigley Brye will conduct the “St. Paul’s Suite,” from Gustav Holst, in concerts in both Port Angeles and Sequim.
Performing with them is the Symphony’s Chamber Orchestra, a 30-piece ensemble with members from across the North Olympic Peninsula. The group will also offer Mozart’s Symphony No. 33 in B-flat major. The two venues:
• Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 Lopez Ave., tonight;
• Sequim Worship Center, 640 N. Sequim Ave., Saturday.
Both performances start at 7 p.m. with all seats at $12. Children 16 and younger are invited to come free with a paid adult.
Tickets to the concerts are on sale at Port Book and News, 104 E. First St., Port Angeles, and at the Joyful Noise Music Center, 108 W. Washington St., Sequim.
“ ‘The Lark Ascending’ is one of my all-time favorite pieces in the violin repertoire,” Ray said.
As she prepares, Ray thinks of the people who will hear this music for the first time — and those who know it like a dear friend.
She said it’s a thrill to introduce new listeners to “Lark.” And Ray, a longtime member and concertmaster of the Port Angeles Symphony, is eager to share her own interpretation of the piece with those who’ve heard it many times before.
Vaughan Williams was inspired to compose “The Lark Ascending” by George Meredith’s poem of the same title. The violin solo part takes on the voice of the skylark — “truly sublime,” Ray said.
Quigley Brye is well-known as a pianist, accompanist, Peninsula College piano professor, horn player and conductor.
She’ll lead the orchestra in a piece that holds a special place in her heart; she conducted the “St. Paul’s Suite” many years ago, and loves the English and Scottish folk tunes woven in.
The suite’s last movement is a mashup, she said, combining the “Dargason” circle melody with “Greensleeves.”
An educator like Quigley Brye, Holst composed the suite for the St. Paul Girls’ School in Hammersmith, London, where he was music director from 1905 to 1934.
“He was a fierce advocate for music education in particular,” Quigley Brye said
“I feel it is a wonderful work to celebrate our Port Angeles High School string students who perform with [the Port Angeles Symphony],” she said, referring to violists Lauren Waldron and Meghan Stinard, cellists Evan Cobb and Karson Nicpon and violinists Sienna Porter, Lauren Rankin, Meiqi Liang and Marley Cochran.
Brye is herself “a pillar of the musical community here, a musician I greatly admire,” said Jonathan Pasternack, the Symphony’s music director and conductor.
To finish these concerts, Pasternack also will conduct the Mozart, a piece he said is brilliant yet not performed as often as other works by this composer.
Pasternack noted that Jo Dee Ahmann, a member of the ensemble who has recently returned after a hiatus, will be concertmaster for the two May performances.
“I couldn’t be happier that she has rejoined the Symphony,” he said.
All of this makes a fitting end, Pasternack added, to the orchestra’s 85th season.
“This year we had a lot of artistic challenges in the repertoire,” and the 70 members of the symphony, who range from teenagers to retired professional musicians, rose up with gusto.
“It was really incredible,” the conductor said.
For more information about these two performances as well as the Port Angeles Symphony’s new season, to start in September with two pops concerts, call the Symphony office at 360-457-5579 or visit www.PortAngelesSymphony.org.
Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra violinist Heather Ray will during two performances this weekend. Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra violinist Heather Ray will during two performances this weekend.
Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra guest conductor Kristin Quigley Brye.
