From ancient Persia to a bicycle that flies past the full moon; from a ghostly Scandinavian harbor to sunny Spain; from a fantastical garden inspired by Mother Goose to the Wild, Wild West, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra will play a program at The College at Brockport that is appropriately titled “Exotic Adventures.” The concert takes place on Friday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage, 180 Holley Street, on the Brockport campus. Tickets are $16/general, $11/seniors, alumni, faculty and staff, and $8.50/students. They are available online atfineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at (585) 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office, 180 Holley Street, Brockport.
Under the baton of RPO trumpeter and guest conductor, Paul Shewan, the ensemble hopes that they will inspire the audience to take the journey with them. Flying themes bookend the program, which leads off with the “Overture to The Flying Dutchman,” Richard Wagner’s opera about a sea captain fated to spend eternity at the helm of a spectral ship. Just as the stormy seas are etched into Wagner’s score, the concert’s finale, John Williams’ “Flying Theme from E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial,” captures the whimsy and excitement of a boy and his alien taking wing on a bike that defies gravity.
Also featured on the program are movements from two Rimsky-Korsakov works, “Scheherazade” and “Capriccio espagnol.” The latter, evoking the Iberian peninsula, was written by the composer not while sojourning to Madrid, Barcelona or Seville, but while sitting in a lakeside villa in the middle of Russia. A master orchestrator, the two disparate locales of these works come to life in each note the orchestra plays.
A witches’ Sabbath is pretty exotic, no? That was the inspiration for Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain,” which may be better known as one of the more frightening sequences in the classic Disney film “Fantasia.” But this drives home the point of the concert’s program, according to Stuart Ira Soloway, the manager of the Fine Arts Series at the College: “Music has the ability to transport you, if you listen to the musical cues.”
Completing the program are a sequence from Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo, “Buckaroo Holiday,” and “The Magic Garden” section of Maurice Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite.”
Shewan returns to Brockport, where he has conducted the RPO several times in the past. When asked if he considered himself to be more of a conductor or a trumpet player, Shewan’s response was an unequivocal “ ‘Yes.’ They have both taken equal precedence in my career and I am equally attached and committed to both. It can be quite a juggling act, but it is worth the extra time that is required to make them work.”
The RPO has had a long-standing relationship with Brockport. In addition to its annual concert, they have a presence on campus throughout the year, providing course instructors and guest lecturers.
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