Stop. Look. Listen.

I have actually heard, I forget where, the complaint that classical music “isn’t loud enough.” Friday’s Lancaster Symphony Orchestra concert at the Fulton Opera House was more than loud enough, with a program that was full both musically and emotionally. And not only was the orchestra expanded for the occasion but the concert marked the […]

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This weekend’s Lancaster Symphony Orchestra program features Gustav Holst’s The Planets, Miguel del Aguila’s Choral Suite No. 2 (read more about the composer here)and John Williams’ “Call of the Champions,” composed for the 2002 Winter Olympics. All this and art, too!

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Israeli violinist Hagai Shaham gave a fiery account of Jenő Hubay’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 in G minor at Friday’s opening concert of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Gunzenhauser, who dedicated the performance to the memory of Dorothy Ann “Dot” Haley, 1986-1988 symphony board chairman, and also to the memory of […]

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That curious sound you hear: random bleats, tweets, twangs and thumps, fragments of melody and the hum of strings, coalescing around the plangent “A” from the oboe. Here, there and all around, musicians are hauling their black clothes out of the closet as symphony orchestras get ready for the upcoming season. Here’s a look at some […]

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I wrote a review of this weekend’s Lancaster Symphony Orchestra concerts, which is being published in today’s New Era, but there were a few things I didn’t have room for. One was to note Ian Hobson’s encore, Sergey Rachmaninoff’s arrangement of Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid, in a performance that was one of the highlights of the […]

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It’s pretty unusual for a musician to get started in his or her teens, but Jennifer Higdon, who was honored by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra with its annual Composer’s Award, didn’t really get started in music until she was 15, as she told the audience at Friday night’s performance. That’s when her mother bought her […]

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