by Pete Rosenbery
CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra closes out its 2022-23 season, beginning next week with a family friendly performance April 4 at SIU Carbondale’s Shryock Auditorium.
In addition to the spring family concert — the second part of the symphony’s introduction to orchestral masterpieces — a pair of free ensemble performances at more intimate locations are planned during the month.
Under the musical direction of Edward Benyas, oboe professor and director of orchestras in the School of Music, the Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra, which includes SIU faculty and students along with talented community musicians and professionals from the region, has been providing high-quality musical entertainment in Southern Illinois since 1903.
April 4 performance
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, the concert will include music from the late 19th century by composers Max Bruch, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner and Modest Mussorgsky and 20th century selections by Igor Stravinsky, Jean Sibelius, Gustav Holst and Joaquín Rodrigo. There will also be side-by-side selections featuring works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Ennio Morricone with the Southern Illinois Civic Orchestra (SICO), which is SISO’s training orchestra under the musical direction of Rossana Cauti, a viola professor in the School of Music.
The civic orchestra features generally younger pre-college students, Benyas said. They have been rehearsing for about eight weeks on music for string orchestra. For the concert, the more experienced SISO string players will sit “side-by-side” with youth orchestra members, joining them for their performance, he said.
SIU students also featured
Numerous instrumental soloists and student conductors from the orchestra, most of whom are SIU graduate and undergraduate students, will be featured. Performers include:
- Violists: Jonathan Henson and Hope Hyink.
- Clarinetists: Sarah Faltz, Theodor Martin and Kate Serbinowski.
- Guitarist: João Vitor.
- Student conductors: Paolo Chiavaroli, Feliciti McKellar and Patrick Murray.
General admission tickets are $20 and $10 for students of any age. They are available in advance through the Saluki Athletic Ticket Office at 618-453-2000, or at the door the night of the performance.
Free ensemble performances set
At 7 p.m. on April 13, the Southern Illinois Oboe Trio will perform music by Mozart and Beethoven in Morris Library’s third-floor rotunda. The trio comprises Benyas, graduate student Aliya Zaripova, a native of Kazan, Russia, and Cameron Williams, a freshman oboe performance major from St. Louis and Carterville.
At 7 p.m. April 25, members of the symphony’s wind sections will perform wind serenades at the First United Methodist Church of Carbondale, 214 W. Main St. The program includes Mozart’s iconic “Serenade in E-flat major, K. 375” scored for wind octet and French Romantic composer Charles Gounod’s “Petite Symphonie” for nine winds. The concert opens with an arrangement of Gioachino Rossini’s overture to “The Barber of Seville.”
Admission to both performances is free, and no reservations are necessary. For more information, email Benyas at benyas@siu.edu.