STORY AND PHOTO OF KAREN BOSSICK

The Wood River Orchestra will play a variety of well-known and upbeat musical selections at their spring concert this weekend.

The free concert will begin at 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 21 (not Sunday as in the past) at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater at Community Campus in Hailey.

The musical menu includes Jacques Offenbach’s ‘Orpheus in the Underworld Overture’, an opera that features easily recognizable can-can music and beautiful clarinet and violin solos.

Other pieces include “La danse des heures” by Amilcare Ponchielli, “Jupiter, le porter de gaiété” by Gustav Holst, “Farandole” by Georges Bizet from “L’Arlésienne Suite n° 2” and “Bacchanale” by Camille Saint-Saens from the opera “Samson and Delilah”.

“Each of these pieces contains music that almost every listener has heard in one form or another,” said Lynne Heidel, chair of the orchestra’s board of trustees. “Music is a joy to listen to and great fun to play.”

Conductor Brad Hershey said the program not only celebrates classical music, but also the return of live music to the concert hall.

“The music we will perform is as much fun for our musicians as it is for the audience. Several tunes are likely to inspire a little toe tapping and sometimes it can be hard not to hum along with the music,” he added.

The Wood River Orchestra was founded 15 years ago in 2007 to enrich the lives of area residents by providing opportunities to perform and enjoy orchestral music and to provide the public opportunities to hear live classical music.

It gives three main concerts each year, and smaller groups of orchestra members perform at community events in the Wood River Valley.

The orchestra relies on donations from community members to buy sheet music, repair instruments and pay its musical director. To that end, it will present its annual Picnic n’ Pops concert honoring orchestra founder Sue Mendelsohn at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 19.

Want to know more? Visit https://www.wrcorchestra.org/