Richmond Community Orchestra – Indiana

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  • Season Opening Concert

    Richmond High School Strings
    join the RCO

    Featuring soloist
    Dr. Jessica Raposo, flutist

    Tuesday, September 26 * 6:30 p.m.
    Civic Hall, 380 Hub Etchinson Parkway, Richmond

    * Carl Reinecke’s “Concerto for Flute and Orchestra”
    * Portions of “An American Symphony”
    from Mr. Holland’s Opus
    * “Marche Militaire” by Camille Saint-Saens

    Dr. Jessica Raposo is Associate Professor of Music and chair of the Fine and Performing Arts Department at Indiana University East, where she teaches flute, music theory, history, and performance. She has previously taught at Fairfield University and Kings College London.

    As a flutist, she performs as a solo and chamber musician in Indiana and Connecticut. Her orchestral experience includes the Vancouver, Burnaby, and Muncie symphonies and the Rome Festival Orchestra.

    Dr. Raposo earned her music degrees from the University of Michigan, the Royal Academy of Music (London), and the University of British Columbia (Vancouver). Her research into the flute’s English performance history won her the National Flute Association’s Graduate Research Competition, and has been featured in the journals of the NFA, British Flute Society, and Netherlands Flute Society.

    The Richmond High School Strings comprises 53 young musicians who are members of the RHS Orchestra.

    They rehearse as a group and are preparing for their Winter Concert on December 12 at 6:30 p.m. and a performance at Christmas in the Depot. Some members are auditioning for Indiana All-State Orchestra, and several participate in Solo and Ensemble Contest.

  • March Concert to Welcome Spring

    Featuring the nationally touring
    Instrument of Hope

    In addition to a collection of engaging classical pieces, the program will feature performance on a trumpet constructed in part from bullet casings at the site of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.


    CONCERT PROGRAM

    Hungarian Dance No. 5
    Johannes Brahms

    Overture from Rosamunde
    Franz Schubert

    An American Elegy for Orchestra
    Frank Ticheli
    Featuring the Instrument of Hope

    Les Sauvages
    Jean-Philippe Rameau 

    Grand March from Aida
    Giuseppe Verdi; arr. Richard Ling

  • Holiday Concert Celebrates the Season

    Sunday, December 28 – 3:00 p.m. (Rescheduled)

    Goddard Auditorium
    Earlham College

    A Festive Fanfare Brian Balmages (1975- )

    This celebratory opening contains small snippets of several well-known Christmas carols.  It is not a medley of songs but rather uses the small excerpts to transition from one piece to another.

    Classic Sleigh Ride Leopold Mozart (1719-1787); Arr. Jay Conard 

    Leopold was the father and teacher of the more famous Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Several compositions entitled “Sleigh Ride” exist (with Leroy Anderson’s the one we hear most often). Our arrangement is from a suite of pieces Leopold wrote; we play three parts from the suite:
    Intrada (entrance)
    Sleigh ride
    “The Young Lady Shivering with Cold”
    We conclude with the sleigh ride as we return home.

    Fantasia on Greensleeves Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
    Arr. David Stone

    This famous English tune is used in the carol “What Child Is This?” The secondary tune heard in the middle is a Suffolk folk song called “Lovely Joan.”

    The Skaters’ Waltz Emile Waldteufel (1837-1915)

    Written in 1882, this waltz was inspired by a skating rink in Paris (think of Rockefeller Center on 5th Avenue in NYC). You can imagine gliding on the ice–without the cold and falling.

    Deck the Halls Fantasie Dana Alan Graybeal

    Dana is a contemporary composer living in the Phoenix area. His “Deck the Halls Fantasie” is an inventive theme and variation on the familiar tune. One variation has the scale altered with a lowered 2nd and a raised 3rd, giving it an exotic flair. The waltz variant has a complex flute part, and the ending galop brings things to a fine end.

    Sheep May Safely Graze J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

    This piece is from “The Hunting Cantata” (a secular cantata), written for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. The text is a mythological allegory with the duke as the demigod Pan. The words are as follows:
    Sheep may safely graze on pasture
    When the shepherd guards them well.
    Where rulers govern well
    We may feel peace and rest
    And that makes countries happy.

    Christmas Sing-along Arr. Jay Conard

    Join along in this medley of Christmas favorites. The words (if you need
    them) are on an insert in your program.

    Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town John Coots and Haven Gillespie

    Coots and Gillespie wrote this song in 1934. In November of that year Eddie Cantor sang it on his radio show, and it became an instant hit. It has been covered by more than 200 artists.

    Glorious Sounds of Christmas Dwight Gustafson (1930-2014)

    Gustafson uses many different colors of the orchestra to give us this rich
    tapestry of Christmas music. In particular, note the delicate version of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” and the use of the Kirkpatrick tune for