KSC Orchestra Plays Holiday Music for Children
KEENE, N.H. 11/4/02 - The March of the Toys, from the musical Babes in Toyland, and other holiday music beloved by children will be on the Keene State College Chamber Orchestras program on Sunday, Nov. 24. KSC artist-in- residence Don Baldini will conduct the 36-member orchestra during the matinee concert, which begins at 3 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Tickets are $7 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth age 17 or younger. Call the box office at 603-358-2168.
The Music for the Holidays will range from well-known carols such as Oh Holy Night to popular songs such as Let It Snow and Ill Be Home for Christmas. A fantasia on the English carol Greensleeves, arranged by Ralph Vaughn Williams, will be on the one-and-a-half hour program suitable for children. The program will diverge from a Christmas theme with the overture from the opera Barber of Seville by Gioacchino Rossini.
Keene State music faculty Carroll Lehman, bass-baritone, Pamela Stevens, mezzo-soprano, Diane Cushing, soprano, and guest tenor Walden Whitham will sing five German and English carols accompanied by the KSC Chamber Singers. Stevens will sing Oh Holy Night. Lehman directs the Chamber Singers, which will perform with the KSC Concert Choir on Friday, Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Redfern Arts Center.
The KSC Chamber Orchestra is composed primarily of KSC students and includes some community members. Baldini also conducts the KSC Jazz Ensemble, which will present a musical tribute to the American composer Richard Rodgers on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the Redfern Arts Center.
Baldini came to Keene State after a professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles. He appeared for 13 years with the Tonight Show Orchestra and toured with Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Peggy Lee, and the Harry James and Toshiko-Akyoshi/Lew Tabakkin bands. He currently performs with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Dartmouth Symphony, Opera North, the Keene Chamber Orchestra, and several local chamber music and jazz groups.
