Join UK Symphony Orchestra on a Voyage through the Stars
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 15, 2016) — The University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra will take its audience on a voyage through space with performances of "Star Wars" and "The Planets" at their February concert. The program, which will also feature this year's Concerto Competition winners from UK School of Music, will begin 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19, at the Singletary Center for the Arts. The event is free and open to the public.
Each year, the orchestra celebrates the individual talents of two UK students who win the UK Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. This year's winners, Christine Sallas and Caden Holmes, will each perform a solo concerto with the orchestra. Sallas, a doctoral student from Conyers, Georgia, will play an oboe concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Holmes, a music performance junior from Madisonville, Kentucky, will play a trumpet concerto by Alexander Grigori Arutiunian.
The rest of the concert will feature popular pieces that connect with the universe. Only months after the newest film from the "Star Wars" franchise hit theaters, the orchestra will perform the universally recognized main theme from the celebrated movies composed by John Williams. Continuing on the theme of space, the orchestra will also present one of Gustav Holst's most important works, "The Planets." For his magnum opus, Holst gave each planet a distinct astrological character, in a grandly orchestrated work that features the UK Women's Choir.
The UK Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Nardolillo, and UK Women's Choir, conducted by Lori Hetzel, are housed in the UK School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts. The school has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, composition, and theory and music history.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu