Community Connections, The Nutmeg Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming concert series of three concerts all feature compositions by living Connecticut composers and include collaborations with two public school music departments.

The first concert, Warm Winds of Winter, will be Sunday, February 11 at 3:00 at First Church in Farmington and features the Nutmeg Symphony Orchestra’s virtuosic woodwind section performing three selections from the double woodwind quintet repertoire. Richard Rodney Bennett’s colorful Reflections on a 16^th Century Tune is based on a French popular song. Farmington composer Stephen Gryc’s Six Romances after Mendelssohn is inspired by Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony. Retired from the University of Hartford musical composition faculty, Mr Gryc is a well known composer, having written commissioned concertos for members of the New York Philharmonic. Joachim Raff’s beautifully moving Sinfonietta concludes the program.

The second concert is Sunday, March 18 at 3:00 p.m. at Bristol Eastern High School. The concert will feature Kara Friedman, first prize winner of the 2016 – 2017 Nutmeg Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition performing Debussy’s Premier Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra. The orchestra will also be joined by the wonderful Bristol Eastern High School Choral Department in performances of works by three living Connecticut composers. Neely Bruce’s Introduction and Grand March: An Orchestral Homage to the late W. A. Mozart of Salzburg and the late C. E. Ives of Danbury is inspired by the comic possibilities of the music of Mozart and Ives. Richard Donahue’s Our Fathers Built this Goodly House is in the tradition of New England hymnody. Thomas Duffy’s Overture 1776 is modeled on Tchaikovsky’s Overture 1812, replacing Russian and French themes with English and American. All three compositions in their own way very much bear the New England stamp and in their background more than a bit of Charles Ivesian influence.

The series will conclude with Magnetic Power, Saturday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. with a concert at Lewis Mills High School in Burlington. Robert Carl’s powerful Symphony #3 will receive its world premier on this concert. Mr. Carl, Chairman of the Musical Composition Department at the University of Hartford, has received numerous international performances. Jessi Rosinski, a past graduate of Lewis Mills High School, with a current musical career based in Boston, will be soloist for Carl Nielsen’s dynamic Concerto for Flute and Orchestra. The concert will include Rossini’s beloved William TellOverture. A collaboration with the Har – Bur Middle School Seventh Grade Chorus will conclude the concert.

Tickets, $20.00 for adults and $10.00 for students, are available at NutmegSymphony.org, can be ordered by mail to P. O. Box 2154, Bristol, CT 06011-2154 or purchased at the door.

Nutmeg Symphony Orchestra

P. O. Box 2154

Bristol, CT 06011-2154

For additional information or interviews contact Marshall Brown, Music Director and Conductor

860.214.0964

marshallbrown@mail.com