Overland Park Orchestra's 50th Anniversary Celebration

We hope you’ll join us for our symphonic series finale and celebration of the Overland Park Orchestra’s 50th season bringing music to the community of Overland Park. This concert will be a momentous occasion, and the works throughout the concert will be truly fitting. We look forward to celebrating this historic season through a concert filled with festive and celebratory pieces from American composers. The overture to Leonard Bernstein’s operetta – Candide will take you on a journey through a bombastic parade of brass and percussion, light-hearted woodwind melodies, beautiful lyrical passages from the strings, and a triumphant finale. This all happens in just about 5 minutes, and it is the perfect way to kick this concert off! Bal Masqué, Amy Beach’s tranquil waltz, is a carefree stroll through an enchanting countryside. The music from the Little Mermaid is unmistakable for good reason; it perfectly illustrates an undersea adventure that has dazzled audiences since its inception. World Music is a contemporary piece of orchestral wonder composed by David Maslanka. This piece encapsulates the belief that music making can shine through times of darkness and transform the whole world.

The concert will feature Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite. Sunrise, the opening movement, is based upon a continuously-rising ostinato that builds to a great orchestral climax, as woodwind chirps and twitters stand in for the awakening birds. Painted Desert is a quiet moment of mysterious impressionist effects, portraying the stark beauty and heat of this landscape. On the Trail is Grofé’s famous sound portrait of the donkey trains that carry tourists down into the canyon. After a “hee-haw” of protest and a brief violin cadenza, the donkeys begin a steady pace down the precipitous trail. At the bottom, there is a more lyrical cowboy song, as the tourists rest their saddle sores in preparation for the long ride home. Sunset, opens with a horn call, answered by the main theme, played in rather spooky string timbres. The movement eventually dies away to into darkness. There are many orchestral renditions of thunderstorms, but Grofé’s Cloudburst has to be one of the most effective. It begins quietly, but moves inexorably towards a crashing climax, driven by ostinato-style writing in the brass, and flashes of orchestral lightning. In the end, the storm fades away and is replaced by a broad statement of the cowboy tune from On the Trail. It is a masterpiece of pictorialism and orchestration. Aaron Copland’s music from the cowboy ballet – Rodeo is a wild west extravaganza. Hoe Down from the ballet music will bring a smile to anyone’s face and is surely to have you tapping your feet throughout. This concert will truly be a celebration of the history of the orchestra and the power that music can have on a community!