The Okanogan Valley Orchestra and Chorus (OVOC) present their final concert of the season on Sunday (March 22), featuring exuberant music that celebrates spring and reawakening.
The orchestra, under the direction of Don Pearce, will play a symphony by Franz Joseph Haydn and the dynamic overture to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. The Haydn symphony — the composer’s last, written at the end of the 18th century — is playful, incorporating some contemporary folk tunes within its four movements.
Woodwinds in the orchestra will be highlighted in the slow movement from the “Petite Symphonie” by Charles Gounod, written in the late 19th century.
The chorus, under the direction of Jonathan McBride, will perform classical selections by Georg Friedrich Handel and Franz Schubert and several favorites from Broadway musicals. They will also feature an original setting of an ancient Buddhist mantra.
The audience will get a special preview of OVOC’s upcoming musical when the choir sings a medley from Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, a play in which classic fairy tales collide and intertwine with surprising results. Into the Woods will be presented from May 9 through 17.
McBride’s description of the Handel selection — that it’s “about music, joy and singing” — characterizes the entire program and the experience of the musicians in preparing and presenting the material.
The concert is at 3 p.m. at the Omak Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for youths, and free for those under 12.
