The Hope College Orchestra will present its first concert of the season on Friday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The performance will open with Symphony No. 60, "IL Distratto" by Franz Josephy Haydn. Through the symphony, Haydn pokes fun at the aristocracy, as shown by the work's title, which means the absentminded.
The concert will feature faculty member and bassist Melissa Straus performing with the orchestra for the second piece, "Concerto for Bass and Orchestra" by Serge Koussevitsky. Straus is an instructor of double bass and ethnomusicology at Hope.
The program will close with Antonin Dvorak's "Symphony No. 8 in G Major."
An avid recitalist, Straus currently performs with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony, and other orchestras throughout Michigan. She has performed on faculty recitals at Central Michigan University and Lansing Community College as well as more contemporary venues such as LadyFest. She also regularly performs chamber music, and helps organize the Mackinac Island Community Foundation Summer Concert Series. Her international performances include Vienna, Austria and Mexicali, Mexico. She holds her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Michigan State University.
The Hope College Orchestra is directed by Richard Piippo, who is an associate professor of cello and chamber music at the college. Piippo has taught at Hope since 1999.
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Ave., on College Avenue at 12th Street.