Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras to explore ‘Terra nostra’ at the March concert
For millennia, the complex and rich relationships between the natural world and humankind have captivated scholars, scientists, philosophers, and artists. Fruitful and fraught, timeless and fragile, these relationships inspire a tremendous spectrum of artistic expressions that imitate, investigate, and emulate the interconnected worlds of nature and humanity.
As part of the “Gaia” theme of its 48th season, the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras is exploring how sound reflects the natural and built worlds around us — and how the two are united through music.
Terra nostra, Latin for “our earth,” will be the theme students will explore at the March concert held in the newly renovated Blizzard Theater.
The concerts will be at 1:30, 4:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday, March 10, at the Elgin Community College Arts Center, 1700 Spartan Drive.
The Prelude, Sinfonia, and Sinfonia/Philharmonia Percussion Ensemble will perform at the 1:30 p.m. concert.
At 4:30 p.m., the Philharmonia ensemble, conducted by Aaron Kaplan, orchestra teacher at Glenbrook North and South high schools, will perform the suite from the Broadway musical thriller “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and recognizable fan favorites in the “Video Games Live!” suite.
At 7 p.m., Matthew Sheppard, artistic director and conductor of the Youth Symphony ensemble, challenges his students to explore the idea of how a human-built world relates to contemporary repertoire. This includes the joyfully exuberant piece “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” by composer John Adams.
Brilliantly scored for a large orchestra, it features the usual minimalist earmarks: repetition, steady beat, and, perhaps most crucially, a harmonic language with an emphasis on consonance unlike anything in Western art music in the last 500 years.
Tickets are $27, $22 for seniors, or $16 for students. Livestream tickets are also available.
Tickets are available at www.eyso.org/gaia-concert-ticketing.
The next concerts in the series will be “Terra metallicum” on April 13 and “Terra una” on May 12.
The Chamber Music Institute spring concerts also will be held April 14 in ECC’s Spartan Auditorium with free concerts at 12:45, 2 and 4:30 p.m.
EYSO auditions will take place in late May for the 2024-25 season. The program consists of six large ensembles, three small ensembles, and a thriving Chamber Music Institute.
EYSO is for instrumentalists in elementary school through college. Need-based tuition assistance is available to qualified students and families and is awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis. Applications are available during online registration, after audition results are shared. Visit eyso.org/auditions for more information.