The Hope College Symphonette will open its 2005-06 season on Friday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The concert program will include works of Gioacchino Rossini, Irving Fine and Edward Grieg.
The program will open with the Overture to the opera "Il Signor Bruschino" by Rossini.
The second work will be "Diversions for Chamber Orchestra" by Irving Fine. Leonard Bernstein was a fan of the piece, describing it by saying that "in these four pieces we can behold a personality: tender without being coy, witty without being vulgar, appealing without being banal, and utterly sweet without ever being cloying. Such a man (and such a work) is rare enough to cause rejoicing."
The concert will close with two popular orchestral works, Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 and 2."
The Symphonette, which is conducted by Richard Piippo, associate professor of music, is selected each year from the larger college symphony orchestra. The Symphonette has made numerous radio and television appearances, and has presented children's and youth concerts in addition to its series of formal concerts. The Symphonette has performed for the biennial meetings of the Music Educators' National Conference (MENC) and appears regularly in cities in West Michigan. The Symphonette has also appeared on the nationally televised
"Hour of Power" from Garden Grove in California.
Each year, the Symphonette conducts a spring tour that has taken the group coast to coast in the U.S. as well as to two provinces in Canada, the British Isles, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. This past spring, the Symphonette toured in Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Avenue on the corner of 12th Street and College Avenue.