Orchestra’s summer concert returns to Manhasset – Entertainment
The Shelter Rock Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director Stephen Michael Smith, will perform its annual summer concert on Sunday, July 31 at 1 p.m. after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19.
The program will feature works by three important female classical music composers, including two African Americans.
The opening of the program will be Overture No. 1, Op 23, written by the French composer Louise Farrenc in 1834. Besides writing three symphonies and two overtures for orchestra, Farrenc composed a considerable number of pieces of music from bedroom and piano. She has the distinction of being the only female professor at the Paris Conservatory (piano) at 19e Century.
Acclaimed tenor Anthony P McGlaun will sing four spirituals set by the 20e century, the African-American composer Margaret Bonds.
Bonds graduated from Northwestern University in 1934 where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and became a prolific and respected composer. In the 1960s, the famous African-American soprano Leontyne Price commissioned and recorded a number of spirituals arranged by Bonds.
Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1 will complete the program. Born in 1887 in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price continued his studies at the New England Conservatory. She is credited with composing over 300 works and was the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer.
Price’s Symphony No. 1 won first prize in the prestigious Rodman Wanamaker Competition in 1932 and was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Only recently has this important work begun to receive the contemporary recognition and performance it deserves after its final publication in 2008.
The concert will be held inside the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, 48 Shelter Rock Road, Manhasset. A suggested donation of $10 will be requested at the door (no advance sale). Simultaneously, the audio portion of the concert will stream outside, where those who wish are encouraged to admire the beautifully landscaped lawns and gardens of the 100-acre campus while listening to music.
The establishment is accessible, air-conditioned and there is ample free parking. The concert will last approximately 75 minutes and a reception will follow on the terrace of the art gallery.
