VSO Unveils the Essence of the Artist April 29

VALDOSTA — The American Prize-winning Valdosta Symphony Orchestra will present Essence of the Artist, the final performance of its 27^th season, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 29, in Whitehead Auditorium. Tickets are on sale now. 

Essence of the Artist will open with Antonín Dvořák’s Romance in F Minor, Op. 11, featuring soloist Dr. Kristin Pfeifer Yu, principal second violin of the VSO, director and master teacher with the South Georgia String Project, and lecturer in violin for the Valdosta State University Department of Music. She regularly performs with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra and the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, and she is the principal violin with Sinfonia Gulf Coast.

Peter Geldrich, principal clarinet of the VSO in the Kay Jennett Chair and assistant professor of clarinet in the VSU Department of Music, will be featured on the second piece of the evening, Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. He is the principal clarinet in the Albany Symphony Orchestra and frequently performs with Sinfonia Gulf Coast and the Charlotte Symphony. 

“I have amazing colleagues, so it is gratifying that they have the opportunity as soloists to show what tremendous artists they are,” said Dr. Howard Hsu, VSO music director and conductor.   

The VSO will conclude its season-ending concert with Igor Stravinsky’s “dazzling ballet score” Petrushka, which Hsu described as “a symphonic showcase that lets the entire orchestra show what it can do.”

Tickets for Saturday’s performance, sponsored by Valdosta Family Medicine Associates P.C., are $27 for adults, $10 for students, and free for Valdosta State University music majors. Discounts are also available for senior citizens, military personnel, and VSU faculty and staff.

Whitehead Auditorium is located on the first floor of VSU’s Fine Arts Building, at the intersection of Brookwood Drive and Oak Street.

Visit www.valdostasymphony.org or contact Maggie Vallotton with VSU’s College of Arts Outreach Office at (229) 333-2150 or mlrodgers@valdosta.edu to reserve tickets or learn more. Tickets are also available at the VSO Box Office before each event.

On the Web:
http://www.valdostasymphony.org

About the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra:

Created in 1990, the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra serves both the cultural life of Valdosta and the regional academic mission of Valdosta State University. The high standard of performance of the orchestra enables it to attract guest soloists of national and international renown to the Valdosta community. The orchestra's membership is a unique blend of resident artist-faculty, students studying professional music disciplines, talented community performers, and carefully selected professionals from a five-state region. Supported by an Advisory Board of Directors, the Valdosta Symphony Guild, Valdosta State University, corporate sponsors, and hundreds of individual patrons, the orchestra has become an important part of the cultural life of the entire region. Its live performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony won the 2014 American Prize in Orchestral Performance.