CSO Youth Orchestras set fall concert

Thursday, November 7, 2013

photo Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Youth Orchestra conductor Gary Wilkes.

The Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Youth Orchestras open their 2013-14 season on Monday, Nov. 18, with a concert by the Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gary Wilkes. The 7:30 p.m. performance at Brainerd Baptist Church, 300 Brookfield Ave., will feature a new work by Frank Ticheli, "Angels in the Architecture."

"Angels in the Architecture," according to Ticheli, "unfolds as a dramatic conflict between the two extremes of human existence -- one divine, the other evil."

The work's title, he says, was inspired by the Sydney Opera House, with its halo-shaped acoustical ornaments hanging above the stage, and by Thomas Merton, the 20th-century Catholic mystic and writer, who wrote: 'The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was built by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit upon it.'"

Ticheli's music includes a solo boy soprano, organ and "an interesting collection of percussion instruments," according to a CSOYO news release.

The CSOYO Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sandy Morris, will open the concert with works ranging from "Presidential Polonaise" from John Philip Sousa to "Pirates of the Caribbean" from Klaus Badelt.

Also featured on the program is the winner of the 2013 CSOYO Concerto Competition, Bethany Thornton. She will perform Henryk Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2, 3rd Movement.

Tickets -- $6 for adults, $4 for children, students and seniors -- are available at the door. Call 423-267-9011 for more information.