GR Symphony Musicians Association to Offer Free Concert

GR Symphony Musicians Association is excited to partner with long-time colleague in the Grand Rapids arts scene, the Grand Rapids Public Museum, to present this free hour-long concert in the beautiful Meijer Theater. We are committed now, more than ever, to sharing our love of great music and want to pay tribute to how symphony musicians in Grand Rapids have served the community since 1930. Past and present musicians of the Grand Rapids Symphony will be featured as soloists, composers, and conductors in this tribute concert.

The program will feature music of the past and present, with a focus on American composers and will open with Aaron Copland's Inaugural Fanfare, Commissioned in 1969 by the City of Grand Rapids for the unveiling of Alexander Calder's La Grande Vitesse. We'll pay tribute to the Roaring twenties with George Gershwin's I Got Rhythm, giving a nod to the American Prohibition and the GRPM's upcoming "American Spirits" exhibit.

We will feature Grand Rapids Symphony members as composers in two works; the effervescent Island Eyescapade (2013) by Jeremy Crosmer, Assistant Principal Cello, which is based on the Georges Seurat painting "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" and Elegy by Alexander L. Miller, Assistant Principal Oboe, written in 2014 in memory of symphony friend Mike Lobbestael.

We will feature past and present Grand Rapids Symphony members as soloists for the evening:

Dave Hall, Assistant Principal Percussion: Marimba Concerto by Ney Rosauro.

Beth Colpean, Principal Harp: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus by Vaughan Williams.

Ellen Sherman, Principal Oboe, Suzy Bratton, Principal Clarinet, Rick Britsch, Principal Horn, and Martha Bowman, former Principal Bassoon, who recently completed her 40-year tenure as the of the Grand Rapids Symphony: Movement 1 of Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart.

Joseph Conyers, former Principal Bass will join us from Philadelphia to conjure a moving rendition of the classic Danny Boy.

The orchestra will be led by Andrew Koehler, Music Director of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia (Kalamazoo College) and Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra; Grand Rapids Symphony musicians Kristen A. Shoup, Viola and Assistant Conductor of the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony's Classical Orchestra; Dan Mattson, Assistant Principal Trombone and member of the Western Brass Quintet (WMU); and Andrew Pool, Viola and Director of Orchestras at Forest Hills Central High School.

The program will end with all facets of the orchestra coming together in celebration of past and present with the rousing finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.