Shoals Symphony at UNA to Perform Winter Concert Sunday

Feb. 28, 2011

FLORENCE, Ala. – The Shoals Symphony at UNA will host its winter concert Sunday at 2 p.m. at Muscle Shoals High School, where attendees will enjoy a medley of musical numbers from across the nations.

Music from Finland, Norway, Estonia, Czech Republic and England will be featured at the “Music of the Nations” performance. UNA student Aaron Lovelady, who was chosen as UNA’s concerto competition winner last October, will also perform an Arutunian trumpet concerto along with the symphonic orchestra.

“People should come because they will get such a variety of music that is represented from so many different countries,” said Viljar Weimann, symphony director and instructor of music at UNA. “Each country’s music has such a different flavor and color, and to listen is like visiting that country in a sense. It’s like a cheap travel trip.”

The symphony will perform Jean Sibelius’s “Finlandia,” which is considered Finland’s national anthem, along with Edvard Grieg’s “Four Norwegian Dances.” They will move to Estonia and through Czech Republic, where they will perform “The Moldau,” which is the second movement in Bedrich Smetana’s “Ma Vlast,” a series of six symphonic poems.

The Shoals Symphony will also perform a piece from England by Ralph Vaughan-Williams entitled “English Folk Suite.” According to Weimann, all of the musical works share a common theme of patriotism, freedom and independence.

Weimann is planning the symphony’s next big concert for May 7 at 7 p.m. at the UNA Amphitheater. The “Symphony Goes Country” performance will feature bluegrass band Iron Horse with special guest The Cowboys. The event will be free to all attendees.

Admission to the “Music of the Nations” concert will be $15 for adults and $5 for students. Attendees can buy tickets at the door or purchase them from Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts.

For more information, contact the UNA Department of Music and Theatre at 256-765-4516.