WVSO MAESTRO STAYS BUSY WITH SUMMER FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

Just because the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra (WVSO) season ends in May does not mean that Maestro Grant Cooper takes the summer off. Cooper will stay busy throughout the summer months at three festivals in two states.

“Festivals offer growth opportunities in an atmosphere of ferocious pacing and musical depth with groups of colleagues who assemble from all points of the globe,” says Cooper. “These festivals provide me the opportunity to discover new things about my own music making and gain perspectives on making music by working with musicians of diverse experience.”

From June 21 through July 27, Cooper will conduct at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC. The festival includes an evening of ballet on July 2 that includes George Ballenchine’s Serenade. As a resident conductor at the festival, Cooper will also conduct orchestra concerts throughout July. The repertoire includes Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel, and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. Cooper’s Appalachian Autumn will be performed, along with Charleston, WV-native Matthew Jackfert’s On the Shores of Qingdao, which received its world premiere with the WVSO in May. For more on the Eastern Music Festival, visit http://easternmusicfestival.org/.

Cooper will conduct two ballets as part of the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY on July 8 and August 9. The first will include Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, Delibes Coppelia and a ballet based on music from Bizet’s Carmen. The second includes Balanchine’s version of Hindemith’s The Four Temperaments along with original choreographic realizations of Handel’s Water Music and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, from the New World. For more on the Chautauqua Institution, visit http://www.ciweb.org/.

Cooper opened his summer festival season June 13 through 15 at The 1891 Fredonia Opera House’s Bach and Beyond Festival in Fredonia, NY. The festival celebrated the 300th birth anniversary of J.S. Bach’s most famous musical son, C.P.E. Bach. The festival included the world premiere of Cooper’s own work, Homage to Bach. The piece takes its inspiration from a short harmonization of Bach’s name. Cooper is the founding artistic director of the Bach and Beyond Festival, now celebrating its 19th year. For more on the festival, visit http://fredopera.org/.

September 14, 2014
Romantic Extremes

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September 19 & 20, 2014
Rejoicing in a Kaleidoscope of Sound

Strauss: Don Juan
Barber: Violin Concerto
           Rachel Barton Pine, violin
Ravel: Mother Goose Suite
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe, Suite 2

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Read more: Rejoicing in a Kaleidoscope of Sound