04/19/2009
The Performing Arts Department will present a concert by the College-Community Orchestra, under the direction of Ubaldo Valli, on Tuesday, April 28, at 8 p.m. in the Dowd Fine Arts Theatre. The concert, which is free and open to the public, features music written by composers with local connections.
The program will begin with the premiere of "Concerto Overture in A Major" written for the occasion by Cortland native Emmanuel Sikora. This will be followed by "Chesapeake Suite," a composition in four movements by Malcolm Lewis who has written a new version for this concert. Lewis was born in Cuba, N.Y., in 1925 and taught at Ithaca College for many years. He lives in Dryden and his wife, Carol, has played with Cortland College-Community Orchestra for many years.
Also on the program is "Poem for Solo Flute and Orchestra" by Elmira native Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920) and features Syracuse Symphony flutist Cynthia Decker. Ending the concert will be "Dance Rhythms" by Wallingford Riegger (1885-1961) who taught at the Pat Conway Band School, a precursor of Ithaca College, in the 1920's. Riegger was a member of the group of American modernist composers known as the "American Five."
The program is made possible with Funds from the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Grant Program, a state agency, the Cultural Resources Council, a regional arts council, the Cortland College Foundation and the Auxiliary Services Corporation.