The Wilmington Symphony Orchestra is pleased to present the 2018-2019 Masterworks Series opening night concert featuring harp duo Lilac 94 on Saturday, September 22, 7:30 pm at the Wilson Center. The program includes Karl Jenkins’ Over the Stone, and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2. Pre-concert festivities begin in the lobby at 6:30 pm.
Lilac 94 is a harp duo comprised of Christina Brier and Kathryn Sloat. Together they are dedicated to performing new and creative music nationally. Christina and Kate have played their music in all kinds of venues, from schools and retirement homes to Eastman School of Music’s Hatch Hall and the Milwaukee Art Museum to a program of twenty-first century works for two harps at the 2015 American Harp Society’s Summer Institute. To learn more about the members of Lilac 94 please visit http://www.lilac94.com/members.
Over the Stone is a concerto for harp duo which was originally commissioned by Prince Charles and performed by then Royal Harpist Catrin Finch and Elinor Bennett (Finch’s harp instructor and mother-in-law). The work was premiered in March of 2002 at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff, performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Grant Llewellyn. Some of the movements are lovely and mystical and others are jaunty and upbeat. Jenkins became famous for the familiar quasi-Baroque string music accompanying the DeBeers diamond commercial, and since has written a number of works that blend a popular-music sensibility with classical choral and symphonic forms.
Symphony No. 2 was composed by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1906-07, while he was serving as conductor of the Imperial Opera at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The work was premiered in February 1908 conducted by the composer himself. This symphony is in four movements and is one of the composer's best known compositions.
TICKETS: WilmingtonSymphony.org or 910-362-7999
