Contacts: Mark Laycock, CIS conductor, (515) 294-3978, 
mlaycock@iastate.edu; or Laura Miller, CIS publicity, (515) 233-3731, 
lwmiller@iastate.edu

MARCH 30 CONCERT JOINS CENTRAL IOWA SYMPHONY, CHAMBER ARTISTS

Symphonic Celebration
Sunday, March 30 - 3 p.m.
Ames City Auditorium, 515 Clark Avenue

AMES, Iowa - In one of their few performances together, the Central 
Iowa Symphony will join the Ames Chamber Artists for a program of 
musical celebration at 3 p.m., Sunday, March 30 at the Ames City 
Auditorium, 515 Clark Avenue, Ames.

"Symphonic Celebration" will feature a performance of Gloria by 
French composer Francis Poulenc. One of the finest vocal works of the 
twentieth century, Gloria is an exuberant, boisterous setting of the 
traditional Latin Mass text. Melodie Duple, director of vocal music 
at Gilbert High School, will be soprano soloist.

Sunday, March 30, at 3pm, at Ames City Auditorium.  Mark Laycock, CIS 
Music Director and Conductor, will lead the performance.  Concert 
Conversations, an informal discussion of the day's program, will 
precede the performance at 2:15.

Mark Laycock, CIS music director and conductor, also plans other 
works with a celebratory spirit for the Sunday afternoon program. 
Wellington's Victory, a dramatic piece composed by Beethoven in 
December 1813, commemorates the British victory over Napoleon in the 
Peninsula War earlier that year. (The premiere performance, in fact, 
was a benefit for Austrian and Bavarian soldiers wounded in battle.) 
Wellington's Victory, with its patriotic melodies, simulated 
cannon-fire and triumphant ending was an immediate success.

Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Festive Overture to 
remember the 1917 October Revolution.  Fête Polonaise by French 
composer Emmanuel Chabrier is an ebullient dance taken from his 
delightful comic opera Le Roi Malgré Lui.  Composer Jean Sibelius 
derived inspiration for many of his works from the great Finnish folk 
epic, the Kalevala.  Lemminkäinen's Return depicts the hero's 
treacherous-and ultimately successful-journey home.

The Ames Chamber Artists is a group of singers representing a broad 
spectrum of educational and vocational backgrounds established in 
1988. They are conducted by Marin Jacobson, who is a magna cum laude 
graduate of St. Olaf College with a degree in vocal music, and holds 
a master of music degree in vocal performance from the University of 
Minnesota. She has studied conducting with Robert Scholz, René 
Clausen, Kenneth Jennings and Robert Shaw.

Laycock will lead an informal discussion of the day's program at 2:15 
p.m. in the Ames City Council Chambers. Director of symphonic 
activities at Iowa State University, Laycock recently conducted the 
Slovak State Philharmonic in Kosice and the Clemson University 
Symphony Orchestra. His work as a clinician spans eight states and 
includes students ranging from beginning to advanced.

The Central Iowa Symphony is a 65-member community orchestra 
comprised of professional musicians, music educators, exceptional 
student performers, and accomplished amateurs from Ames and central 
Iowa. On May 18, the symphony will conclude its 16th season with a 
program featuring five outstanding student performers from Iowa.

Admission to the March 30 concert is $12 for adults, $11 for seniors 
(age 65 and older), and $5 for students. Advance tickets may be 
purchased at Big Table Books and Rieman Music. Tickets will also be 
available at the door (telephone orders taken at 515-239-5360).

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