Bangor orchestra celebrates youth

BANGOR – One of Michelle Bolton’s goals is to share her love of music with many people throughout her life, and the young French horn player will do just that as she returns to her home state for two Casual Concerts with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra on coming weekends.

Bolton was the 1999 winner of the annual BSO High School Concerto Competition, and has gone on to study at The Juilliard School in New York City, majoring in horn performance.

“She completely blew us away two years ago when she competed. She’s just an amazing musician,” said Susan Jonason, executive director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.

Jonason explained this pair of concerts differs a great deal from the regular season shows – first because the orchestra will be performing away from its usual home at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono as it takes the show on the road to two area high schools, and because the program will be geared toward youth, fun and celebration.

“When we first thought of having these concerts, we immediately thought of Michelle and how wonderful it would be to have her return to play with the orchestra, because she is so inspiring to young people who might be interested in pursuing music,” Jonason said.

“We’re having some excellent student musicians from the high schools sit in with the orchestra to play,” Jonason said, “and the concert itself is full of music that is accessible. It’s lively and bold and uplifting. One of the reasons we are doing these Casual Concerts is to celebrate the opening of the Maine Discovery Museum [in Bangor]. So the whole concert is celebrational in nature.”

The same program of music will be performed at each of the two schools, including both Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” and its answering piece, “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” by Joan Tower.

In addition to these complete short works, many longer musical works will be excerpted, with the symphony playing only the more familiar, moving or dramatic movements. Among these are the “Triumphal March and Ballet” from “Aida” by Verdi; the first movement of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8; the very familiar third and fourth movements of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5; and the first movement of the Horn Concerto No. 1 by Richard Strauss, which will feature a horn solo by Bolton.

Bolton will not be the only young person performing with the symphony. On Saturday evening at Bangor High School, the orchestra will be joined by Bangor High students Chris Downes, Colin Graebert, Will Barrett and Jeremy Viner. A week later, on Feb. 3, music students Elise Kopesky and Nathan Curll, both from Camden Hills High School, will sit in with the symphony during the concert at their high school that evening.

The first concert will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at Peakes Auditorium at Bangor High School and will feature exhibits from the new Discovery Museum and other activities. The second concert will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at the new Strom Auditorium at Camden Hills High School in Camden.

Additional music performed by various student ensembles in a wide range of styles will follow each of the concerts, and there will be a free ice-cream social at the end of each of the evenings.

For more information on these concerts, call the Bangor Symphony Orchestra at 942-5555 or 1-800-639-3221. The symphony also has a Web site, which may be visited at www.bangorsymphony.com.