The Grand Rapids S
ymphony will perform with the Wayland High School Symphony Strings students at the Fine Arts Center the evening of May 17.
The Grand Rapids Symphony will be conducted by John Varineau. The Symphony Strings Orchestra, made up of WHS students from 10-12 grades, is conducted by Karen Nofsinger.
This isn’t the first time the GR Symphony has performed with the WHS Symphony Strings. The two got together in March 2013, and townbroadcast.com wrote in its review:
“History was made in this community Tuesday night when the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra played ‘Side by Side’ with the Wayland High School Symphony Strings.
“It was the first time ever a professional symphony ensemble performed in Wayland and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for high school students to perform classical music next to professional musicians on the same stage. Perhaps best of all, they played to a packed house of more than 800 people at the Fine Arts Center.
“Several factors came together to make a memorable night happen.
“One was the sponsorship of the United Bank, which was represented during the evening by its president, 1968 Wayland High School graduate Arthur C. Johnson. Noting the terrific attendance, he quipped, “There are more people here tonight than came to the basketball games in which I played in the late 1960s. But Mrs. (Orchestra Director Karen) Nofsinger and her orchestra had a better year than we did.”
“Another factor was Nofsinger herself, who is in her 14th (now 17th) year as conductor and director of the Wayland High School Symphony Strings. She was selected last spring by the GR Symphony as the winner of the John P. Varineau Outstanding Music Educator Award for 2012, thereby opening the door to the symphony orchestra’s visit, which is part of its outreach program to surrounding communities.
“But it would
n’t have been possible without the gleaming new Fine Arts Center, which is big enough and has the acoustics necessary to handle such an ambitious undertaking.
“Varineau, for whom the outstanding educator award is named, also happens to be the associate conductor of the GR Symphony, second in command to Director David Lockington. He was the maestro in charge Tuesday night and he had high praise for the work of Nofsinger and for Superintendent Norman Taylor.
“’Whenever you see your superintendent, be sure to shake his hand and thank him,’ he told the audience. “’There are superintendents (in West Michigan) who aren’t so supportive of the arts.’”
“Most of the concert featured music that was familiar. The symphony performed three pieces by itself for the first half of the program. The first was Rossini’s overture to the opera ‘The Barber of Seville,’which Varineau said would be remembered because of the Bugs Bunny cartoon farce in which he gives Elmer Fudd a shave and a haircut. (Elmer Fudd a haircut?)
“The second was a piece written by the orchestra’s oboeist, Alexander Miller, ‘Remix in D,’ which was inspired by the traditional Pachelbel Canon in D.
“The third was Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances from ‘Prince Igor,’ which included the familiar movie tune ‘Stanger in Paradise.’
“After intermission, Varineau and the much larger ensemble, which now included Wayland High School students, went back to Rossini with ‘Overture to Semiramade,’ preceded by a brief talk by the conductor about the composer and his use of the crescendo.
“Then came ‘Finlandia,’ which Varineau explained as a patriotic piece that had a great deal to do with Finland’s breaking away from Russia and establishing its independence just after the turn of the 20th century. The middle section of Jean Sibelius’ most beloved work was familiar to many churchgoers because it is the hymn ‘This Is My Song.’
“The two orchestras then did a 20th century American selection, Aaron Copland’s Hoedown from ‘Rodeo,’ which probably a lot of listeners recognized as the ‘Beef, It’s what’s for Dinner,’ TV commercial from not long ago.
“The ensemble concluded the evening by moving over to pops by performing a medley of tunes from the currently popular movie ‘Les Miserables.’
“Mrs. Nofsinger was presented with a special award just before the last piece was performed.”
Tickets for the May 17 performance this year are $10 for adults, $5 for students in grades K-12. Tickets can be purchased in advance from any orchestra student, at the Wayland administration office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and at the door starting at 4 p.m.
The concert is sponsored by United Bank.