(Posted April 21, 2015)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The repertoire for the Juniata College orchestra's spring concert will feature the familiar classical music big names -- Mozart, Dvorak -- with some surprising pop culture pieces at 3 p.m., Saturday, May 2 in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts on the Juniata campus.

Tickets for the performance are $5 at the door. Children under age 18 and Juniata students with current I.D. are admitted free. The Juniata Orchestra is conducted by Benjamin Firer, lecturer in music at Juniata.

Tickets for the performance are $5 at the door. Children under age 18 and Juniata students with current I.D. are admitted free. The Juniata Orchestra is conducted by Benjamin Firer, lecturer in music at Juniata.

The concert will open with "The Abduction from the Seraglio (Overture)," written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and taken from one of the composer's early operas.

The next selection, "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis," is written by acclaimed British Composer Ralph Vaughn Williams. Williams, noted for his inclusion of English folk music into classical themes, used a tune originally written by Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis for his composition.

Trumpet soloist John Ehrenburg will be featured as a special guest in the selection "Concerto in D for Trumpet, Strings and Continuo" by Georg Phillipp Telemann. The selection is a Baroque-era composition written by one of the most prolific composers in history.
Ehrenburg is a performer and teaching artist who is currently a second-year graduate student at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. As a chamber musician and recitalist, he has performed with the Washington Symphonic Brass, the National Honor Band of America and at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center.

The musical mood will shift with "The Moon Over the Ruined Castle," which was written as an elementary school music lesson by Rentaro Taki. The song has been adapted by many musicians, including jazz pianist Thelonius Monk and the heavy metal group The Scorpions.

The Juniata Cello Ensemble will play "All You Need is Love," written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The original Beatles recording is noted for its orchestral studio instruments backing the band.

The Juniata Honors Quartet will perform "One Hand, One Heart," from the musical "West Side Story." The song was written by Leonard Bernstein.

For the concert finale, the full ensemble will return to perform "Themes from the 'New World Symphony,'" written by Anton Dvorak. Dvorak, a Czech composer, immigrated to the United States in 1892, where he wrote "From the New World."

The Juniata College Orchestra members are as follows:

Violin 1: Destiny Waller, a community member from Huntingdon Pa., and Rebekah Smith, , a community member from Port Matilda, Pa.


Violin 2: Amber Boring, a freshman from Altoona, Pa.; Victoria Buser, a senior from Allentown, Pa.; and Ashley Schnackenburg, a freshman from Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Viola: Erik Krueger, a senior from Maple Glen, Pa.; Kevin Schofield a freshman from Madison, Conn.; David Welsch a freshman from Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa.; and Chrissy Whiteman, a junior from Delmont, Pa.

Cello: Avery Cheng, a freshman from Elk Grove Village, Pa.; Casey Lapham, a sophomore from Gaithersburg, Md.; Abigail Long, a community member from Hesston, Pa.; and Hannah Lutwyche, a sophomore from Reisterstown, Md.

Bass: Rebecca Katz, a sophomore from, Somerset, Pa., and Brady Scales, a freshman from Mount Airy, Md.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.