CELEBRATE SPRING with Olympia Chamber Orchestra and St. Martin’s choir

The Olympia Chamber Orchestra (OCO) and the Saint Martin’s University (SMU) Choir share at least one concert a year to present great choral and orchestral works. This year the concert is all about spring, and the combined choir and orchestra present the “Spring” movement from Joseph Haydn’s “The Seasons” oratorio. Vocal soloists are Khristy Harvey, soprano, Solomon Reynolds, tenor, and Darrell J. Jordan, baritone.
Nickolas Carlson, OCO conductor, and Darrel Born, Fine Arts Chair at SMU, have prepared the musicians to portray a SCARY winter storm starting with all the furious bluster of winter but fading away to make way for spring. Some music historians think the opening sections herald Beethoven’s Symphony #6, “Pastoral” and the young Beethoven may very well have been at the first performance of the “Seasons”.
Soloists and choir sing about the joys of spring, and the peasants begin plowing their fields. Flowers bloom, the animals cavort and prance, and it all reminds you of Disney’s portrayal of spring in “Fantasia”. The soloists sing sentimentally with a teasing undertone and the choir echoes happiness and relief that winter has departed. The “Spring” movement ends with a hymn praising God, a trio from the soloists and an exuberant fugue.
OCO will play a Strauss waltz, “The Voices of Spring”.
Beethoven’s “Fantasy for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Op. 80” is an unusual work that premiered on an unusual concert. The concert introduced both Beethoven’s fifth and sixth symphonies. The Choral Fantasy ended the concert, but the audience wasn’t enthused. The structure is unusual, and must have been unnerving when musical structures were predictable. This work is now a beloved major work for piano, often like a piano concerto, opening with a long piano solo. At times, the piano becomes an accompaniment supporting bursts of chamber music. There are orchestral interludes and oratorio-like vocal solo and choral sections. The boisterous finale declares: “Joyously the gifts of high art when love and strength are united, (and) divine grace is bestowed upon Man”. Daleen Haifley, soprano, Crystal Zimmerman, mezzo soprano, and Ryne Olson, tenor will be soloists for this work.

Hyekyeong Hannah Cho is the featured piano soloist. South Korean-born pianist Hannah Cho is an active piano soloist and collaborative pianist who has been a featured soloist in South Korea, Bulgaria, Japan and U.S. at many venues including Carnegie Weill Hall. She earned a Bachelor Degree in piano performance at Dong-A university on full scholarship and then moved to Bulgaria to earn a Master’s Degree in Piano performance at the National music Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Currently, she teaches piano on the faculty at Saint Martin’s University
Darrell Born prepared the lively youthful choir to perform the choral works, and Nickolas Carlson will conduct the concert. Members of Opera Pacifica will join the choir for both works.