Campus Events and Media Releases

UMF Community Orchestra Celebrates the Season with Annual Winter Concert, Dec. 12

FARMINGTON, ME (December 4, 2009)--The University of Maine at Farmington
Community Orchestra will present its Winter Concert at 7:30 p.m., Saturday,
December 12, 2009, in Nordica Auditorium, UMF Merrill Hall. The 35-piece
ensemble includes UMF students, staff and community members.

The program will feature the premiere of a new octet composed by Philip
Carlsen, UMF professor of music. Best known recently in the Farmington area
for his automobile orchestra compositions, as well as the toy piano music
he wrote for the fairies in the Sandy River Players' "Midsummer Night's
Dream," Carlsen returns to more conventional instrumental forces with this
octet.

The piece's title, "East by Northeast," is an acknowledgement of the
inspiration Carlsen took from traditional scales of Java and Japan,
although many of the harmonies and other musical materials are more
reminiscent of jazz and contemporary Western concert music. The
instrumentation is entirely for wind instruments, providing a nice contrast
with the string orchestra piece that follows--a fugue by Robert Kechley on
the traditional carol, "Lo, how a Rose e'er Bloooming."

For the remainder of the program, conductor Trond Saeverud has chosen one
of Rossini's most beloved overtures, "The Thieving Magpie" ("La gazza
ladra"), and the Symphony No. 6 by Antonin Dvorak. Violinist and conductor
Saeverud has performed as soloist with major orchestras in Europe and the
U.S., including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and the
Orchestra of St. Luke's at Lincoln Center in New York City. He is the
concertmaster of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and founding director of the
Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra.

The concert is open to the public and tickets are available at the door the
night of the performance at $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, and free for
children under 12 and UMF students with I.D. For more information, please
contact the UMF Department of Sound, Performance and Visual Inquiry at
207-778-7072, or robin.palmermosher@maine.edu.

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