RPO Focuses on Major and Minor at February’s Symphony 101 Concerts

Rochester, NY – The two most basic concepts of emotion – joy and sorrow – often are portrayed most memorably through music.  The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s next pair of Symphony 101 concerts will do just that on Friday, February 16, at 7:30 p.m. at the Hochstein Music School, and Sunday, February 18 at 2:00 p.m. in the Hale Auditorium, Roberts Cultural Life Center at Roberts Wesleyan College. The concerts continue this season’s Symphony 101 theme of examining how composers evoke emotion.

To illustrate how composers effectively use major and minor to express emotions, Music Director Christopher Seaman will lead the RPO in musical examples from symphonies, concerti and other forms by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mendelssohn (“Wedding March” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Mahler (“Funeral March” from Symphony No. 5), John Corigliano and Smetana.  RPO pianist Joseph Werner (The Lois P. Lines Chair) will be featured in the second movement from Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4 in G major for Piano and Orchestra.

Music Director Seaman leads these engaging and innovative Symphony 101 concerts that feature discussion, musical examples, selections from significant works and complete pieces.  Following each concert, Mr. Seaman takes questions from the audience. 

General admission tickets for these performances are $22, available online 24/7 at www.rpo.org, by phone (454-2100) and in person from the RPO Box Office, and at any Wegmans.  RPO Box Office hours are Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (non-concert Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.).  Wegmans is open seven days a week.  A convenience fee may apply.

The Symphony 101 Series is sponsored by PAETEC Communications, Inc. Additional support for this series is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

RPO performances are made possible in part with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; the State of New York; Monroe County; the City of Rochester; and American Airlines, the official airline of the RPO.