Praise and Punk: The Endings of All Endings

All is fair in love and war…or is it? Our 30th anniversary season comes to a blockbuster close with a concert mashup that puts gospel, classical, and a nonconformist marching band in one epic program that turns the love-themed concert on its head. From romance to spirituality and passion to battle, emotions will run high from start to epic finish as we team up with Apostolic Church of God Sanctuary Choir to blow the roof off in the first half and then stage the ultimate “battle of the bands” rematch against our friends at Mucca Pazza to the tune of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite in the second half. Go Big or Go Home…right?

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“To end our 30th anniversary season, we wanted to do things that were very much indicative of not only where we’ve been, but also indicative of where we are and where we’re going,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Hirsch said.

The concert will open with Eugene Butler’s choral piece “How Excellent is Thy Name,” performed with the orchestra and Apostolic Church of God Sanctuary Choir. The choir has been performing with the Sinfonietta since the early 1990s.

“It’s just fun to have a 200-voice Gospel choir with 65, 70 orchestra musicians,” Hirsch said. “Just the size and the amount of sound is pretty amazing. Especially out of Wentz, which is a smaller venue. It’s just a fun way to kick off the concert.”

From there the Sinfonietta will play Camille Saint-Saens’ “La Muse et Le Poete” with guest artists Melissa White on violin and Ifetayo Ali on cello. After that the choir returns for a medley of pieces — some previously performed with the Sinfonietta, as well as newer works.

The second half of the concert opens with a work composed by Andy Deitrich of Mucca Pazza called “War of Amusements.” Then it’s on to the battle.

The first time the Sinfonietta collaborated with Mucca Pazza, they performed a joint version of the “1812 Overture,” acting out the story while performing.

“It just became one of the most popular things we ever did with a collaborating partner,” Hirsch said.

This time they will perform selected movements from Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet Suite.” Once again they will act out the narrative of the story, with members of the orchestra and band depicting the Montagues and Capulets.

“The narrative will be also told with little Russian doll nesting puppets that will each represent one of the major characters of the story of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” Hirsch said. “Those little dolls will actually be video onto a large screen so the audience will be able to see up close what the dolls are doing.

“What also makes this special is we will be performing the almost never seen or heard happy ending to Prokofiev’s version of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” he said. “And in this version, rather than them both dying at the end, it has a different, much happier ending.”

To conclude the concert, and the season, they will perform a piece it put together. “We thought it would be fun, as long as we have a 30-piece marching band on stage with us, to take three of classical music’s biggest and most iconic endings and string them together in a medley called ‘The Ending of All Endings,’” Hirsch said.

ABOUT THIS CONCERT:

CONDUCTOR:
Mei-Ann Chen

GUEST ARTISTS:
Melissa White, violin
Ifetayo Ali, cello
Apostolic Church of God Sanctuary Choir
Mucca Pazza
PROGRAM

Butler How Excellent is Thy Name
Saint-Saëns La Muse et le Poète
Various Gospels
Deitrich War of Amusements
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suite
Various Ending of all Endings