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Howard County's Only Professional Chamber Orchestra
The OrchestraThe Orchestra of St. John’s was formed to provide Howard County with its first completely professional orchestra, dedicated to exceptional performances of classical music from the Baroque era to the twenty first century. It is a chamber orchestra, composed of fifteen to thirty professional musicians, selected from a wealth of regional talent. The orchestra has the versatility to perform repertoire, written for smaller ensembles as well as symphony orchestras, with greater clarity, highlighting the unique sound of each instrument.
The ConcertsThe Inaugural Concert of the Orchestra of St. John’s was held on November 9, 2008, featuring a tribute to the great British composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams on the fiftieth anniversary of his death, with the gently songful Prelude to “Rhosymedre” performed by the Handbell Choir of St. John’s, the bountifully, melodious, and rhapsodic “The Lark Ascending” for solo violin and orchestra, and the passionate and spiritual “Fantasy on a Theme of Thomas Tallis”. In addition, in honor of All Saints Day, the full orchestra and the combined choirs of St. John’s and The Episcopal Cathedral performed Morten Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna.” The concert was critically acclaimed, and over 200 people attended. Listen to an excerpt:
The second concert was held on March 15 2009 and featured some of the most famous music written for a string orchestra. The concert began with Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, which is the only concerto written for nine string parts. The concert continued with Mozart’s most recognizable piece of music, the serenade “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”. Also on the program was the breathtakingly beautiful Adagio for Strings written by Samuel Barber, one of his most famous works.
The concert concluded with a masterpiece by Tchaikovsky, Serenade in C for Strings, which covers the full emotional range from the heroic and elegiac, to the playful and passionate.
This concert honored the music teachers of Howard County and involved the participation of award winning students playing in a side-by-side performance of the Tchaikovsky. A declaration of March 15 as "Orchestra of St. John's Day," was presented by a representative of the Howard County Executive, the Honorable Ken Ulman. The final concert was performed during the two Sunday church services at St. John’s, first at 9:00 AM and then at 11:15 AM on May 17, 2009. It featured the music of Bach with the combined choir, strings, and brass performing the most famous of his early cantatas, “Christ Lag in Todes Banden.” In addition, the concert included music from the Orchestral Suite No. 3, with the sublime Air on the G String. The Orchestra of St. Johns opened its second season with "Viva Italia!" held Sunday, November 8, 2009. Featured on the program were Ernest Bloch's Concerto Grosso # 1, as part of the worldwide celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the composer's death, and the ever popular "Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, featuring members of the orchestra as soloists, and Mendelssohn's sunny "Italian" Symphony. You can sample from each movement of our performance of this symphony below: First Movement:
Second Movement:
Third Movement:
Fourth Movement:
JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT CONCERTS: FEBRUARY 21, 2010 AT 3:00 PM AND 4:30 PM TWO
CHILDREN'S CONCERTS FEATURING EMMY AWARD WINNER JOHN TAYLOR, THE “KINDERMAN”
MUSIC OF ROSSINI, MOZART,
PAGANINI, BRAHMS, TCHAIKOVSKY, JOPLIN, RAVEL, AND MORE ! Learn about the different instruments and their unique sounds. Discover the magical ingredients that make music so special: melody, rhythm, harmony. Travel through history to explore the people, places, and ideas behind the music. Experience what it's like to conduct an orchestra; and most of all, enjoy the thrill of a live concert performed by the Orchestra of St. John's, Howard County's only professional chamber orchestra!
CONCERT FOR EARTH DAY, APRIL 18, 2010 AT 4:00 PM “WATER,
WATER, EVERYWHERE” HANDEL'S
WATER MUSIC ELGAR'S SEA PICTURES, featuring contralto Alison Matuskey of the Columbia Pro Cantare WORLD PREMIERE BY AWARD-WINNING MARYLAND COMPOSER VIVIAN ADELBERG RUDOW
All performances take place at the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church located in Ellicott City, Maryland. With its splendid acoustics, beautiful interior, magnificent organ, and ample parking, audiences will have a convenient and inspiring setting in which to experience an intimacy and immediacy of communication with the music and the musicians not possible in a large concert hall. Tickets are $15 for adults. Free admission for under 18 accompanied by an adult.
Vision for the OrchestraThe mission of the orchestra is to provide classical music of exceptional quality to the residents of Howard County and the surrounding counties. We envision the orchestra's expanding the number and diversity of concert offerings. Also, we expect the orchestra to help educate young people by enhancing and broadening their understanding and appreciation of music, and by providing opportunities for them to participate with the orchestra in performances. Finally, through educational outreach, residencies, tours, commissions of new works, recordings, and collaborations with other branches of the fine arts, we envision the orchestra’s achieving regional and national recognition.
FundingFunding for the Orchestra is derived from several sources. First, donations are made by individual contributors to the established Friends of Music concert series at St. John’s. (The Orchestra of St. John's is an independent orchestra in residence at St. John Episcopal Church as part of the Friends of Music Program, whose funds are separate from those of the church.) Second, money is raised from businesses in the form of sponsorships. Third, money is raised from organizations supporting the arts through grants. Fourth, for some concerts, tickets are sold. Finally, advertisements in the music programs are available.
Businesses have the opportunity to be Distinguished Sponsors by donating to a specific concert, or joining one of the established circles. Contributions may be made to Friends of Music, with a memo stating that the contribution is for “The Orchestra of St. John's”, and sent to: Orchestra of St. John's St. John Episcopal Church 9120 Frederick Road Ellicott City, Md. 21042 Attn: Nancy Stavely For further information, call Nancy Stavely at 410-461-7793, extension 501 or e-mail: Nancy@stjohnsec.org
More Chamber Music
For smaller chamber ensembles, such as string quartets, piano trios, brass ensembles, solo piano, and guitar, to name some of their most popular offerings, Sundays at Three presents seven to eight concerts per year, most of them at Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia, although Sundays at Three occasionally appears at St. John's as well. For more information click here. To see schedules and other information about performing organizations all over the world, go to InstantEncore.com. To go directly to the entry for the Orchestra of St. John's, click here. For information on concerts in the Baltimore area, go to Zymbelstern.com (click here). A good source of information on all things Howard County, including the arts is ExploreHoward.com. We gratefully acknowledge grants from
We wish to thank some of our other supporters:
SponsorsS.T.Kim
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