Delta Symphony Orchestra tours to Batesville October 3, 7:00 pm. for the annual orchestra event sponsored by First Community Bank, Lyon College, Batesville Symphony League and Arkansas Arts Council.
Organized in 1974, the Delta Symphony has been entertaining, educating, and enriching the Northeast Arkansas region for 35 years and is the only professional performing symphony in the Northeast Arkansas region. Special projects include encouraging young musicians through the Adopt a School program of visiting musicians in the classroom and the Delta Symphony Concerto Competition where talented young musicians compete for prize money and a chance to perform with the Delta Symphony. Discover the Delta provides a series of chamber concerts in Forrest City, Piggott, Helena, and Jonesboro.
The conductor of the orchestra, Dr. Neale Bartee, is Professor of Music at Arkansas State University and the founder of Delta Symphony (formerly Northeast Arkansas Symphony).
He has conducted ensembles in Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and New Mexico, Mississippi, Texas, and a professional orchestra in Romania. As a performer on trombone, he was part of the American Trombone Choir and toured in Russia, Finland, and England, and has taken his own ASU Trombone Choir to perform twice in the International Trombone Festival.
Saturday’s family friendly program features a classical concert opening with Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man using no strings, followed by movements from the famous Vivaldi pieces for solo violin, The Four Seasons. Two soloists perform a movement from each season in these chamber works for strings alone. Dan Gilbert of Memphis, a frequent performer with Memphis Symphony and Arkansas Symphony, will solo from Summer and Autumn and Barbara Reeve of Batesville, concertmaster of Delta Symphony and faculty of both Lyon College and Batesville Schools, will perform Spring and Winter movements.
To complete the program, Dr. Bartee chooses the romantic symphony, Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov, Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy by Tchaikovsky, and the rarely performed Pines of the Appian Way by Respighi. A reception hosted by North Arkansas Youth Orchestra parents follows the concert in Bevens Music Room.
The Saturday night program will defer the donors brunch to Friday, October 30, when Batesville Symphony League presents vocalist Barbara Jimenez in a piano trio for evening entertainment and dancing. Jimenez is a Jonesboro native, whose piano and vocal skills herald back to ASU and whose career continues to reach new heights.
Tickets may be reserved in advance by contacting kmelson@firstcommunity.com or calling 612-3400. Lyon faculty, staff, and students are admitted free of charge. Tickets are also available at the box office an hour before the concert, Adults $12, Senior Adults $10, Students $5, and a Family ticket for $25.
