Press Release

Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra

Date: 10/27/2009

COLDWATER –  The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra returns to Tibbits for a family friendly Community Partnership concert at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 3. In addition to the concert, an instrument petting zoo will be available in the Tibbits gallery starting at 6:15 pm.

The KSO performed at the Tibbits Opera House in 2007 in a combined concert with the Coldwater High School Band and Choir. It was so memorable they were asked to return and will again include the high school choirs and band.

The Coldwater High School combined choirs will sing a portion of Antonio Vivaldi’s masterpiece, “Gloria, I. Gloria in excelsis Deo” accompanied by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.

In a rousing finale, the Coldwater High School band and choir will perform John Philip Sousa’s ever popular “Stars and Stripes Forever” with the symphony. Coldwater High School Band Director Jerry Rose said, “We are pleased that the Kalamazoo Symphony has chosen to include our students in this performance.”

This Coldwater program is graciously sponsored by the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities. A Michigan Humanities Council grant also helped provide for this concert.

Thanks to the symphony’s award-winning program called Community Partnerships, the orchestra travels throughout Michigan performing a program of orchestral highlights titled “Music Moves Us.” Following the Coldwater concert, the orchestra will perform in Three Rivers and Vicksburg later the same week.

These programs are conducted by KSO Assistant Conductor Barry Ross; KSO Principal Horn Michael Wood will be featured as soloist. The KSO is pleased to partner with schools in these communities to highlight the excellent band and chorus programs in the region, and to provide an opportunity for these students to work with Barry Ross and the musicians of the KSO. 

The 75-minute program will feature shorter works and movements of symphonies from the masters of the Classical era, including Mozart (his beloved Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), Beethoven, and Haydn (his popular “Surprise” symphony).  The familiar “Adagio” for strings by American composer Samuel Barber, featured memorably in the film Platoon, will provide a poignant contrast.

An excerpt from Richard Strauss’ heroic Concerto No. 1 for Horn and Orchestra will feature KSO Principal Horn Michael Wood. A member of the Kalamazoo Symphony and Artist in Residence with the KSO since 2000, Wood performs regularly with the KSO and KSO Woodwind Quintet. In addition, as a KSO Artist in Residence, Wood serves as a teacher and musical ambassador to students throughout the Southwest Michigan region.

The KSO received the 2008 Met Life Award for Arts Access in Underserved Communities for its Rural Community Partnerships. In granting the award to the KSO, the Met Life Foundation recognized the extraordinary depth of the KSO’s reach into communities, the value provided to local music students, and the opportunity for community members to experience orchestral music.

Tickets are available at Tibbits administrative offices located at 93 W. Chicago St., on line, or at the door. Adult tickets are $15, Tibbits members and series tickets are $12 and student tickets are $10. The concert begins at 7:30 pm at Tibbits, 14 S. Hanchett St., Coldwater. For more information visit the web site at www.Tibbits.org or call 517-278-6029.