Home / Campus Life / VSO features guest conductor and Toronto Symphony harp soloist
VSU’s Symphony Orchestra will perform their third concert this season on Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. in Whitehead Auditorium.

VSO features guest conductor and Toronto Symphony harp soloist

VSU’s Symphony Orchestra will perform their third concert this season on Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. in Whitehead Auditorium.

“This is the first time ever we have had a harp soloist in the 22 years of Valdosta’s orchestra history,” Doug Farwell, executive director, said. “Our guest soloists usually consist of performance stars or faculty members.”

The program will feature guest conductor Edward Cumming, and principal harp soloist player of the Toronto Symphony Heidi Van Hoesen Gorton.

Gorton, who grew up with musicians as parents, even asked for a harp on her seventh birthday.

“I grew up hearing music all around me, during meals, in the car, and when I would tag along to rehearsals and lessons that my parents would teach,” she said. “ People might be quite surprised to know my favorite band is Metallica.”

Cumming, who was music director of the Hartford Symphony, and resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, currently serves at the Hartt School as Primrose Fuller Associate Professor of Orchestral Orchestral Activities.

According to Cumming, Howard Hsu, director of VSU’s Symphony Orchestra, has attended many of his rehearsals with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

“ I met him in Pittsburgh over a dozen years ago, and put him in front of my youth orchestra at that time,” Cumming said. “It was immediately clear to me that he was a gifted young man.”
Cumming and Hsu have combined talents along with Gorton to bring Symphonie Fantastique to VSU.

The pieces being performed include Claude Debussy’s Pre`lude a` l’ Apre`s Midi d`un Faune, Reinhold Glie`re’s Concerto for Harp in E-flat Major Op.74 and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique (op.14).

“Debussy is a perfect example of musical “Impressionism,” with its use of tone colors to convey hazy outlines,” Hsu said. “The Berlioz is the feverish work of a Frenchman who fell in love with a visiting Irish Shakespearean actress from afar, and the very thought of her inspired him to write this masterpiece.”

According to Hsu, the music selections were chosen by Maestro Cumming and are some of his favorites.

He chose the Gliere Harp Concerto because as Resident Conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony he had heard Heidi Van Hoesen Gorton’s mother (the Principal Harp of the Pittsburgh Symphony) perform this work. He felt that it would fit nicely with the other works in the program.

“VSU students should look forward to hearing the Debussy, (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), and Berlioz (Symphonie fantastique). Both are among the most famous and popular works in all of classical music and are often featured in music appreciation courses.”

Tickets can be purchased at the door for $10 with VSU student ID, $25 regular, or for $25 online at www.valdostasymphony.org.

Check Also

VPD creates summer program for area young people

The Valdosta Police Department (VPD) has announced a new youth program. Stand Against Youth Violence ...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *