Past: Southeast River Campus Presents Gala Season Opener Concert Featuring Distinguished Violinist Cho-Liang Lin

The Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra will present its Gala Season Opening Concert featuring the esteemed violinist, Cho-Liang Lin, in a performance of the beloved Tchaikovsky “Violin Concerto.”

Also on the program will be the engaging and tuneful “Karelia Suite” by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and Franz Schubert’s famous “Unfinished Symphony.” The concert will be conducted by Dr. Sara Edgerton, Southeast professor of music.

Lin’s remarkable career includes solo performances with most of the major symphony orchestras and at concert venues across the globe. His recordings have garnered Grammy nominations, Gramophone of the Year Awards and Penguin Rosette Awards.  He is also a dedicated Artist Teacher and has been on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, New York, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas.  In 2000, he was named the “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America.

The concert will open with “Karelia Suite,” which is deliberately folk-like in nature and opens with a fanfare which features the French horn section, followed by a more meditative “Ballade” with woodwind and string melodies. The final movement, a lively march, rounds out this short, attractive work.

The orchestra will then perform “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8 in B Minor,” which consists of two movements that are notable for their expressive range, melodic inventiveness, and harmonic beauty. Typically, a symphony of this time period would have had a total of four movements, but while sketches for a third movement exist, only the first two movements of this symphony were completed by Schubert. The “Unfinished Symphony” was given its premiere in 1865, many years after Schubert’s death in 1828, and it was received with rapturous acclaim upon its first performance, and has remained an audience favorite ever since.

The concert will conclude with the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra being joined by Lin in a performance of the iconic Tchaikovsky “Violin Concerto.” Written in 1878, this concerto is considered a masterpiece and among the most popular of all violin concertos ever written. It contains breathtaking virtuosity for the solo violinist as well as memorable tunes for the full orchestra. The first movement with its lyrical melodies is followed by a more reflective slow movement. The final movement is a tour-de-force for the solo violinist with dazzling runs that lead to the exciting conclusion.

Tickets may be purchased by contacting the River Campus Box Office, located in the Cultural Arts Center, 518 S. Fountain St., weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., by calling (573) 651-2265, or online at RiverCampus.org.