CENTRAL IOWA SYMPHONY PRESENTS EUROPEAN MASTERWORKS

"From the Old World"
Sunday, October 19^th, 2003
Ames City Auditorium. 3:00 pm

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Click here for a 146K high resolution image of Julius Klein.

European masterworks and a performance by a contemporary master highlight the inaugural concert of the Central Iowa Symphony’s 17th season at 3 p.m. Sunday, October 19 in Ames City Auditorium, 515 Clark Avenue.

Slovakian clarinet virtuoso Julius Klein will join the symphony for Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, which is among the finest solo works for the instrument. Completed less than three months before the composer’s death, the concerto balances exquisite melodies, challenging passagework and freewheeling spirit, and is a good match for Klein’s musicianship, said CIS music director and conductor Mark Laycock.

“Julius is a world-class musician,” Laycock explained. “He has a tremendous sensitivity and warmth, both as a performer and as a human being. His interpretation of the Mozart concert will leave you breathless.”

Klein is a native of Slovakia, where he is executive director of the Slovak State Philharmonic in Kosice and is the orchestra’s solo clarinetist. He also is active as a chamber musician with the Kosice Wind Trio and is a world-traveled soloist performing in many countries including Austria, France, Germany, Greece, the United States, Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Japan and South Korea.

Laycock said symphony members are looking forward to Klein’s visit to Ames, and collaborating with him for the concert. In addition, Klein will meet with students in several master’s classes and other educational opportunities are being planned.

In keeping with the theme, “From the Old World,” the concert includes a variety of central European masterworks. Overture to the Season, written by Czechoslovakian-American composer Tomas Svoboda, will open the program. With nearly 250 performances since its 1978 premiere, the rousing work is fast becoming a staple of orchestras around the world.

Alan Greiner, CIS principal bassoon and executive director of the Iowa High School Music Association, will be featured soloist in The Old Grumbling Bear by Czech composer Julius Fucik. The concert will also include Two Pictures by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and Three Dances from The Bartered Bride by Czech composer Bedrich Smetana.

Laycock, formerly director of orchestral activities at Iowa State University, is Director of Orchestras and Instrumental Music at Chapman University in Orange, California. He will return to Ames to conduct the first two concerts of the Central Iowa Symphony season on October 19 and December 15. He recently conducted the Slovak State Philharmonic in Kosice.

Tickets are $12 for adults, $11 for seniors (ages 65 and older) and $5 for students, and may be purchased in advance at Big Table Books and Rieman Music in Ames, or at the door. To place credit card orders, call Ames City Auditorium offices at (515) 239-5360. Season ticket order forms are available on the Central Iowa Symphony web site at: www.cisymphony.org.

Central Iowa Symphony is a 70-member community orchestra comprised of professional musicians, music educators, exceptional student performers and accomplished amateurs from Ames and central Iowa. The October 19 performance is funded, in part, by a mini-grant from the Ames Commission on the Arts.

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