April 7, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. …Two Baker City High School choral ensembles and student instrumentalists along with three choirs from the greater Baker community will perform side-by-side with Oregon Symphony musicians in a special Symphony concert to celebrate a two-year Community Music Partnership (CMP) with Baker City on Saturday, May 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Baker High School gymnasium in Baker City. CMP funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oregon Cultural Trust, the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation and MetLife/ASOL.
Musicians from all over Baker and Union Counties will join the Symphony, led by Music Director Carlos Kalmar, for an evening of audience favorites. The Baker High School Symphonic Band, directed by Jeff Sizer, will sit in with the Symphony to perform Vaughan Williams’ “English Folksong Suite,” while the Baker Community Choir, Grand Ronde Community Chorus and Eastern Oregon University Chamber Choir will join the Baker High School Bel Canto and Treble Choirs, directed by Tom Isaacson, to sing selections from Copland’s “Old American Songs” and Randall Thompson’s “Frostiana.” Kalmar and the Symphony will present Morton Gould’s “American Salute” and several of Dvořák’s “Slavonic Dances;” after intermission, Kalmar will lead the Symphony in Bartók’s “Concerto for Orchestra.”
While in Baker City, the Symphony will also present two free Youth Concerts for Baker County school children. The concerts are scheduled for 9:30 and 11 a.m. on Friday, May 5, also in the Baker High School gymnasium. Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda will conduct the Youth Concerts, which will feature a musical program called “Musical Artifacts,” where students will explore the influence of folk music from around the world on the classical repertoire.
These Symphony concerts are among the more than 300 activities to take place in Baker County since January through the CMP, the Symphony’s most far-reaching community engagement initiative. Activities have included “informances,” instrument “petting zoos,” ensemble performances, master classes and other student events, as well as two chamber music concerts for the community. Groups of Symphony musicians and staff have visited Baker County at least monthly to present activities.
“The impact on the students in our schools has been tremendous,” says Kathleen Chaves, a member of the CMP steering committee, community business leader and parent of a South Baker Elementary student. “There’s such excitement built every month through the relationships that the Symphony musicians have with the students. This community-wide concert will be unlike anything the students have ever experienced because they don’t often get the opportunity to hear a symphony orchestra perform. In addition, this concert will reach students of all ages and economic backgrounds and I believe it will make a profound impression on them.”
“I think the CMP has been outstanding for the youth in our community; for them to get to interact with the Symphony musicians is a tremendous educational opportunity,” adds Dr. Chuck Hofmann, mayor of Baker City and a founding member of the Friends of the Oregon Symphony Baker City chapter. “I think that our relationship with the Symphony will just grow and deepen. I hope as a result of the CMP that we will strengthen the relationships in our arts community, which were already very strong. The first Friday of every month in Baker City is community arts night and we’re going to coordinate Symphony activities with community arts activities. We hope to incorporate Symphony members into our events and make it a community wide arts celebration.”
“We hope that the excitement and energy generated through year one of the partnership will cause a ripple effect throughout the community, encouraging continued collaborations between the schools and local artists and arts organizations along with a sustained relationship with the Symphony,” says Emilia Smith, Director of Education and Community Engagement. “The leadership in Baker City has been supportive from the very beginning, demonstrating the community’s commitment to the arts. The Symphony’s relationship with Baker City has just begun, but there is no doubt that our relationship will continue to grow and develop in and beyond year two of the partnership.” The Symphony’s CMP, now in its fourth year, has worked previously with communities in North Bend, Redmond and Klamath Falls.
The second year of the partnership will focus on the development of a sustainability plan to further develop Baker County music programs through local resources and collaborations, as well as to explore creative sources of additional funding, says Smith. The Symphony will offer a staff development course taught by Principal Percussionist Niel DePonte, arts consultant Annie Painter and Symphony staff called “Music Is, Music Feels, Music Speaks.” The course is designed to provide music specialists and general teachers at both elementary and secondary levels with leadership skills in music-related activities, and to promote the sustainability of an arts curriculum in Baker County schools after the Community Music Partnership concludes in June 2007.
Symphony Concert Ticket
Information
Tickets for the May 6 Symphony concert are $8 for adults, $5 for students and
$15 per family (parents with minor children), and may be purchased at Betty’s
Books, the Crossroads Arts Center and Ryder Brothers Stationery Store, all in
Baker City, as well as at Sunflower Books Etc. in La Grande. For more information,
contact the Baker Community Concert Association at (541) 523-3124 or (541) 523-4813.
