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Free Strings Concert at Delbarton Sunday

See the Delbarton Abbey Orchestra and Young Abbey Strings.

Mark your calendar now for the Delbarton Abbey and the Young Abbey Strings Concert on Sunday, May 22, at 3:00 pm in the Fine Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

The Young Abbey Strings, the training orchestra for the Abbey Orchestra, opens the program with four short works with well known themes, including Tchaikovsky's Waltz from The Sleeping BeautyThemes from the Moldau by Smetana, Brahms' Hungarian Dance #5 and Bartok's Ten Short Pieces from the Series for Children.

The Abbey Orchestra follows with a varied program. Andrew Rosenberger, a senior at James Caldwell High School and a member of both All-State Band and Orchestra, will perform the 1st movement of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, written in 1791 just weeks before Mozart’s death. This was almost certainly the composer’s final orchestral work and contains some of Mozart's finest writing. 

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Next, the full orchestra turns to works based on voice works starting with the Overture to Die Fledermaus ‘The Bat’, a comic opera by Johann Strauss Jr. (fact: both Johann Sr. and Johann III were also composers). In 1873 Strauss was a renowned Viennese composer of popular dance music when he turned his talents to operettas, or "little operas." The overture is a preview piece based on melodies from the operetta itself.

The Orchestra also performs Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture, Op. 36 based on liturgical themes discovered in a collection of early Russian Orthodox canticles. As the third of a series of brilliant orchestral works which Rimsky introduced in St. Petersburg, the piece begins with a slow introduction followed by a cello solo. A solemn trumpet voice leads to a joyous, dancelike tolling of bells. After a prelude of darkness and mystery, serenity leads to exaltation in a world of color and light.

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The concert concludes with theatrical scores, beginning with Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring, Howard Shore’s Academy Award-winning music from the film trilogy. The music is based on leitmotif, a musical phrase associated with a character, a feeling or an event.

Also to be performed is the theme from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein, one of the most significant contributions to the American art form of the Broadway musical. The music is based on European operatic style but is influenced by big band jazz and the Latin-beat mambo. The concert program is sure to please music lovers of all ages. Remember, this musical event at Delbarton is free, open to the public and refreshments will be served. Spread the word!

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