M E D I A  A D V I S O R Y

January 5, 2018 – Richmond, Virginia

Join the Richmond Symphony and Music Director Steven Smith on Sunday, January 21 at 3pm for a Metro Collection concert including chamber pieces by Salieri, Norman Bolter, Crawford Seeger and Mozart. The Richmond Symphony’s Principal Trombonist, Zachary Guiles will be the featured soloist on Norman Bolter’s IOURS for Trombone and Chamber Orchestra. All Metro Collection concerts are held in the Blackwell Auditorium on the Randolph-Macon College campus.

Norman Bolter credits Mr. Greenjeans, a character who was featured playing trombone in an episode of Captain Kangaroo, for inspiring him to start playing music. At just eighteen, he became a member of the Boston Symphony and is currently on the faculties of both New England Conservatory and Boston Conservatory. His compositions are inspired primarily by the natural world and the human experience. Bolter was inspired to write IOURS about the cosmic trinity: the sun, the earth, and the moon. Each movement is meant to connect various cosmic bodies culminating in praise of our mighty sun

The featured works by Ruth Crawford Seeger stand to represent two distinct phases of life. Andante for Strings is an orchestral arrangement of the third movement of her String Quartet; a piece that showcases her involvement with the modernist movement and evokes the 1920s. In contrast, Rissolty, Rossolty was composed for a radio program called The Wellsprings of America. This piece is much less complex and has a more simple arrangement that tells a story of a hapless husband burdened by a lazy wife.

In early 1787, the city of Prague invited Mozart for a visit. A fabulous ball was held in his honor and in turn, he hosted a benefit concert as a thank you. The Symphony in D minor was a part of that wonderful benefit concert and is often called “The Prague Symphony.

Tickets are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors, $10 for children and $10 at the door for college students and faculty with ID. Purchase tickets online at richmondsymphony.com or by calling 1.800.514.ETIX. A free pre-concert talk will be held from 2 – 2:30pm in the Dollar Tree Community Room on the second floor of Brock Commons across from the Blackwell Auditorium.

Zachary Guiles bio

Steven Smith bio

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About the Richmond Symphony

Founded in 1957, the Richmond Symphony is the largest performing arts organization in Central Virginia. The organization includes an orchestra of more than 70 professional musicians, the 150-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus and more than 260 students in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra programs. Each season, more than 200,000 members of the community enjoy concerts, and radio broadcasts. The Symphony also provides educational outreach programs to over 50,000 students and teachers each year. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.