Saddleback College is offering a weekend of great musical events this Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16, in the McKinney Theatre.
Saddleback’s Music Department will welcome hundreds of local high school students to its Mission Viejo campus this Friday for the annual High School Festival. This day-long workshop for high school musicians, organized by Dr. Georgios Kouritas, Director of Instrumental Studies at Saddleback, is now in its 35th year. Chamber, string, and symphony orchestra students from south Orange County High Schools will attend morning workshops; high school wind ensemble, symphonic band, and concert band students will attend afternoon workshops.
On Friday evening, at 8 p.m., Saddleback College’s Wind Ensemble will perform in the McKinney Theatre for High School Festival students, their families, and members of the public. The Wind Ensemble concert includes pieces that celebrate Broadway and Saint Patrick’s Day, and features works by Mendelssohn, Hale, Giovannini, Grainger, Nixon, and Persichetti.
The music continues on Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. when the Saddleback Symphony Orchestra showcases winners of the Saddleback Concerto Competition: Amy Liu is the soloist for Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22, by Camille Saint Saens; Yumito Torigoe is the soloist for Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54.
The Symphony Orchestra will then play an audience favorite, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (“Beethoven’s Fifth”), one of the greatest masterpieces ever written. “This is a very challenging piece for every orchestra that tackles it,” says conductor, Dr. Kouritas. “Composed at the beginning of the 19th century, Beethoven managed to write one of the most brilliant symphonies, despite facing severe hearing loss.”
Tickets for Saddleback Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra concerts are $15 general admission, with $10 student/senior tickets when purchased in advance. To buy tickets, visit www.saddleback.edu/arts or call the Ticket Office at (949)582-4656. The ticket office is open Tuesday through Friday, Noon to 4 p.m., and one hour before a performance
