Orchestra Features Wagner, Korsakoff

The Westmont Orchestra, after a tour to our nation’s capital, performs music by Richard Wagner and Rimsky Korsakoff at the Spring Orchestra Concert Friday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West and Sunday, Feb. 26, at 3 p.m. in First Presbyterian Church. Tickets, which cost $10 for general admission (students are free), may be purchased at the door. For more information, please contact the music department at (805) 565-6040 or email music@westmont.edu.

The orchestra celebrates President’s Day by performing at the fourth annual 2017 Capital Orchestra Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

“I’m most excited for the Santa Barbara performances because we’re bringing home our program from the Kennedy Center and the growth from our tour in Washington, D.C.,” says Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of music and worship.

The repertoire features Richard Wagner’s “Overture to Der Meistersinger” and the first two movements of “Scheherazade” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

The orchestra also presents “Variations on Themes of Haydn” by Johannes Brahms that includes Hayden’s St. Martin’s Chorale.

“The theme of the concert could certainly be storytelling,” Shasberger says. “From the tales of Sinbad the Sailor in ‘Scheherazade’ to the detailed intrigue of the comedic ‘Meistersinger,’ there are stories for everyone.”