The Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the conclusion of our 70th season and the conclusion of three successful years with our beloved conductor, Zeke Fetrow, with our annual Concerto-Aria Concert on May 30, 2018, 7:00 pm in McKenzie Theater on the EOU campus in La Grande. This concert will feature the winners of the concerto-aria competition held earlier this year.
The student winner of the concerto-aria competitions is Hannah Schafer, a sophomore in high school from College Place, Washington. She will perform the first movement of Violin Concerto in E Minor by Mendelssohn.
The regional winner, Matthew Moran, will perform Piano Concerto No. 2 by Shostakovich. Matthew is a senior at Walla Walla University as a pre-med major. He has already been accepted into medical school.
The concert will conclude with the winner of the open competition, pianist Anson Ka-Lik Sin, a graduate student at Southern Oregon University. Anson will perform Concerto No. 1 in B Minor by Tchaikovsky.
In between the performances by our competition winners the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra will play some well-known pieces of music that many in the audience will readily recognize. The pieces include The Great Gate of Kiev by Mussorgsky, West Side Story Selections by Bernstein, and An American in Paris Suite by Gershwin.
We will be saying goodbye to our beloved conductor, Zeke Fetrow, as Zeke has been accepted into the Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York, a very prestigious opportunity. Zeke was instrumental in guiding the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra forward during the past three years. We hope to have him back as a guest conductor when he will be known as Zeke Fetrow, DMA! We wish Zeke the very, very best in this new endeavor.
Tickets cost $12 for adults or $8 for seniors. Admission for college students is $2, while students in grades 8-12 are charged $1. Children under the 8th grade have free admittance. Tickets can be purchased in advance at Direct Music Source at 1010 Adams in La Grande or at Betty’s Books at 1813 Main Street in Baker City or on the box office page of our website. Tickets can also be purchased at the door at McKenzie Theater. Inquiries can be made via email at [email protected] or call us at our new phone number, 541-805-7754.
