The launch of Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers' (OSSCS) 40th Anniversary Season coincides with another anniversary: the 20th Anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1989, on the very same week of OSSCS's first concert this season, a massive demonstration of over 70,000 people occurred in Leipzig -the heart of the Communist resistance in East Germany. Less than one month later the Berlin Wall fell; and one year after that, in celebration, Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven's brilliant Ninth Symphony at East Berlin's Schauspielhaus (Playhouse).
OSSCS's outstanding 40th anniversary season begins October 4, 2009 at 7 pm at the First Free Methodist Church in Queen Anne. This commemorative concert features Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and conductor George Shangrow will pair it with one of the most beloved of all cantatas, the Bach Cantata, Jesu, der du meine Seele (No. 78), in honor of Bach's hometown, Leipzig. Soloists include: Eleanor Stallcop-Horox, soprano; Melissa Plagemann, alto; Stephen Wall, tenor and Charles Robert Stephens, bass.Also part of this benchmark season, OSSCS members will continue their commitment to nurturing talent in young musicians by participating in an innovative collaboration with Seattle University's (SU) music department. OSSCS conductor George Shangrow and Quinton Morris, Director of Chamber and Instrumental Music at Seattle University, will work with selected SU students who will receive credit for playing with Orchestra Seattle. Students will have the opportunity to rotate within the sections (excluding the concertmaster or principal seats) and violinists will have the opportunity to rotate in both the first and second violin sections.Videos