PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — This month, the Northern Maine Chamber Society Orchestra (NMCSO) will kick off the 2016 holiday season in Aroostook County with a performance on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. in Presque Isle.
The concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center’s Multi Purpose Room. Admission is free, though donations will be accepted so the group can purchase music.
The NMCSO is a volunteer community orchestra with approximately 40 accomplished string, brass and wind players from all over Aroostook County and New Brunswick.The ensemble is conducted by the Reverend Kevin Kinsey of Fort Fairfield.
Kinsey assured individuals who may be on the fence about attending an orchestral performance that the program has something for all musical tastes. He emphasized the goal is for audience members to hear at least one piece they are familiar with, and at least one piece that’s completely new to them.
This season’s program will open with “Alla Hornpipe” from George Frederick Handel’s “Water Music.” Next will come the first two movements “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3,” by Johann Sebastian Bach, one of six concertos written throughout Bach’s life that are considered among the most exemplary works of the Baroque era.
Other pieces include Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Overture on Russian Themes”; several selections from the incredibly popular musical “Chicago”; and an original piece entitled “El Caliente del Sol,” composed by NMCSO member and former conductor Harrison Roper. The piece will feature saxophone soloist Sean Diette.
The concert will conclude with one of the most widely familiar and celebrated pieces of the Romantic era: “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2,” by Franz Liszt.
For more information, visit NMCSO’s website at www.nmcso.org/ or visit the orchestra’s Facebook page.
