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The 58-member Festival Orchestra will perform at eight concerts during the 16th Annual Endless Mountain Music Festival, which opens this Friday, July 22 and ends 17 days later on Sunday, Aug. 7.

The Festival Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Gunzenhauser, founder and artistic director of the Endless Mountain Music Festival, will be featured at this weekend’s first three concerts of the 16th annual summer season.

Movie Night at Mansfield University’s Steadman Theater is at 7 p.m. this Friday, July 22. Film clips will be projected on two big screens as the orchestra performs and Todd Ranney narrates two works.

Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, Op. 34” is played quite often because it is the “catchiest and most charming music ever composed.” “Peter and The Wolf, Op. 67”, a musical fairy tale for children has entertained families for generations with different instruments representing six-year-old Peter, his grandfather, some hunters, a bird, cat, duck and a wolf.

This Saturday, July 23 at 7 p.m. at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., the Festival Orchestra will play Weinberg’s Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes”, Liszt’s “First Piano Concerto” and “Symphony #4”, the last of Dvorak’s ”early” symphonies. At the piano will be Egyptian-American pianist Wael Farouk, praised as a “formidable and magnificent pianist.”

“Bravo for America,” a free concert, will be at 2:30 p.m. this Sunday, July 24, rain or shine at the Grand Canyon Regional Airport at 112 Runway Road, near Wellsboro. The orchestra will perform George Gershwin’s “Strike up the Band,” a stirring patriotic piece followed by high-energy musical scores from four famous films about the “Wild West” and ending with ‘The 1812 Overture” and “Stars and Stripes.”

The first four of the season’s 10 ensemble music concerts begins with “The Elegant Flute & The Beautiful Harp,” a free concert at 7 p.m. Monday, July 25 at the Knoxville Yoked Church in Knoxville, Pa.with Morgann Davis on flute and Melanie Mashner on harp. They will perform selections by Donizetti, Beethoven, Delibes, Debussey, Bizet, Fure, Bologne, Ryterband, and Ebert.

Tuesday, July 26, at 7 p.m. at Williamson High School at Tioga Junction, the EMMF Brass Quintet will perform Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” The Temptations’ “My Girl,” Toto’s “Africa,” The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame,” Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” Sting’s “Message in a Bottle” and others.

Wednesday, July 27 at 7 p.m. in the Grand Community Room at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro, musicians on flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano will perform Ludwig Thuille’s beautifully crafted melodic and romantic “Sextet for Woodwinds and Piano.” The exhilarating finale is full of high spirits and beguiling melodies. Guest artist Greg Martin will also play piano for Alfred Uhl’s “Kleines Konzert (Little Concerto) for Clarinet, Viola and Piano.” It is rare for a composer to write a concerto for these three instruments.

At 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 28 in the Coolidge Theatre at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro will be “A Tribute to Count Basie.” Over a sixty-plus year career, Basie, an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer, helped to establish jazz as a serious art form and swing as one of jazz’s predominant styles. He also solidified the link between jazz and the blues. Performing will be the 14-member EMMF Little Big Band. In the band are: jazz pianist Bram Wijnands of Kansas City, Missouri, Rick Doganiero of Wellsboro on baritone saxophone and Dick Adams of Williamsport on tenor sax along with members of the Festival Orchestra, including two alto saxophonists, three trumpet players, three trombonists, one tuba player, a percussionist, and one bass player. The concert is BYOB with audience members encouraged to bring snacks and beverages.

Friday, July 29 at 7 p.m. the Festival Orchestra concert at Mansfield University’s Steadman Theater will end with Peggy Dettwiler, MU Choral Activities director, conducting the orchestra, the Endless Mountain Music Festival Chorus and current Mansfield University music students in a tribute to the music of Irving Berlin. Among the selections being performed are: “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor,” and “God Bless America.”

Saturday, July 30 at 7 p.m. at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., the Festival Orchestra will perform a “Tribute to German Romantic Music” with selections by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.

The third free concert is at 8 p.m. on Sunday, July 31 with the EMMF Brass Quintet performing outdoors at Cherry Springs State Park near Coudersport in Potter County followed by a free tour of the park’s night skies.

Four of the 18 concerts being held from July 22 through Aug. 7 are free for all ages. Youth, ages 20 and under are admitted free to all festival concerts.

A flex pass to attend any six festival concerts is $150. A season pass to attend 17 concerts is $199.

For tickets, passes or more information, call the Endless Mountain Music Festival Box Office at (570) 787-7800 or visit www.endlessmountain.net.

Diane Eaton
dianetn@ptd.net
(570) 724-3800