Orchestra to Feature Schubert, Korsakov

The Westmont Fall Orchestra Concert will present a diverse musical sampling by such composers as John Williams, Scott Joplin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov on Saturday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. in the Page Multipurpose Room at Westmont and Sunday, Nov. 2, at 3 p.m. in First Presbyterian Church. General admission to each performance is $10; students are free. To purchase tickets or obtain more information, please call (805) 565-6040.

Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of music and worship at Westmont, conducts the orchestra. He came to Westmont nine years ago after teaching at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Colorado Christian University. Most recently, he conducted the graduate choir of the Moscow Conservatory of Music in Russia on Oct. 26. Han Soo Kim, an internationally accomplished violinist, is string coach for the orchestra. Paul Mori, who conducted with the Bach Ensemble of Baltimore in the 1990s, is wind and brass coach for the orchestra.

The concert includes Williams’ “Hymn to the Fallen,” which is from the 1998 Academy Award-winning movie “Saving Private Ryan.” The orchestra will perform Joplin’s “Ragtime Dance,” which Joshua Rifkin re-released in 1970 with orchestration by conductor Gunther Schuller. The evening concludes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34,” which features Spanish folk melodies, creative percussion and an energetic ending.

The performance includes Franz Schubert’s “Symphony in D minor, No. 8 Unfinished,” Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras I” and Aaron Copland’s “Variations on a Shaker Melody.”

Tickets to the 10th annual Westmont Christmas Festival: Behold, I Am Making All Things New (Dec. 4-7) go on sale online Nov. 13. It features Westmont choirs, orchestra and dramatic readings. The orchestra is raising $100,000 to support a tour to Italy this season.