LEWISTON — The Midcoast Symphony Orchestra will kick off its 29th season Saturday with works by Berlioz, Milhaud and Delibes at The Dolard & Priscilla Gendron Franco Center, 46 Cedar St.
“Symphonie Fantastique” will be directed by conductor Rohan Smith at 7 p.m. Saturday.
The orchestra will also present the program at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at the Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham.
A special feature of the concert will be the performance of the “Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone” by Nathanial Hackworth, winner of the Midcoast Symphony’s first Judith Elser Concerto Competition in May.
Hackworth is from Presque Isle and was selected from among several outstanding young Maine musicians, winning a case prize and performance with the orchestra this fall. He is a 2015 graduate of the University of Maine, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in music performance, and is pursuing a Master of Music degree in percussion performance. He serves as timpanist for the Boston Festival Orchestra.
The Symphonie Fantastique, composed in 1830, traces the emotional life of an artist who suffers from unrequited love and goes from yearning to mania to hallucination. The work calls for a total of more than 90 instruments, including English horn, Eb clarinet, four bassoons, 13 brass, two harps, and full ranks of strings and percussion.
Maine Symphony Orchestra’s community outreach program, More with Midcoast, will present a special event during the concert weekend, free to all audience members. Bowdoin College professor of music Emerita Mary Hunter will talk about how orchestras work at 1:15 p.m. Sunday in the Orion Auditorium. She will be assisted by orchestra musicians.
Tickets are $20 those those 19 and older; free for all others, including students with an ID. Tickets are available at midcoastsymphony.org; at 207-846-5378; in advance at the Franco Center, Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, Now You’re Cooking in Bath, Book Review in Falmouth, or at the door with cash or by check.
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