‘Ode to Joy’ to be featured at BSO’s season finale

ORONO – The Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s season finale is scheduled for 3 p.m. May 5 at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono.

Conductor candidate Uri Barnea, conductor of the Billings Symphony in Montana, will lead the orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony,” also known as the “Ode to Joy.” One of the most popular classical symphonies, it features the Oratorio Society, the University of Maine Singers and four guest soloists.

The four vocal soloists are: soprano Elena DeSiervo, Orono; mezzo-soprano Gloria Raymond, who received her undergraduate music degree at UMaine; tenor Bruce Fithian of the University of Southern Maine music faculty; and baritone Drew Poling of Boston.

Bangor audiences voted Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” the symphony of the millennium. Leonard Bernstein chose the “Ninth Symphony” in 1989 to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall.

After the concert, the BSO will hold its annual Spring Dinner Auction. Items for bid include travel packages, art, home furnishings and a Mercedes-Benz C240. Reservations for the dinner are $35 per person. The auction begins at 7:30 p.m. and is open to the public. Auction item descriptions are online at www.bangorsymphony.com. For information, call 945-5555 or (800) 639-3221.