Time: 8 p.m.

Tickets: $20-$55

The Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra (LSO) continues its 2013-2014 season on Monday, March 17 at 8:00 pm at Southminster Church with a performance featuring Irish Folk Music.  The program highlights the virtuosity of the LSO’s string and woodwind sections, complemented by the return of guest artist Gerard Gibbs as oboe soloist.

“St. Patrick’s Day is filled with revelry and tradition, and we designed a concert to celebrate accordingly,” notes music director and conductor Glenn Klassen.  “The Irish people have a great folk music tradition, which has inspired major composers over the past century.  Our finale features this music, including Irish Tune from County Derry (Danny Boy), Molly On The Shore and The Irish Washerwoman.”

“I took the folk music idea and selected three spectacular gems of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and twentieth-century symphonic music as complements.  Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds Op. 44 features our wind sections, and is built on folk music of Dvořák’s native Czech Republic.  While not Irish, it is clear that music is our common language, as the soundscapes are uncannily related.  As a prelude, I asked Gerard Gibbs to perform an oboe concerto that would prime the ear for the woodwind sonorities of the Serenade, and we selected an elegant baroque Concerto for Oboe No. 3 of George Frideric Handel.  Linking all these works is the concert opener, Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 for String Orchestra with Piano Obbligato, which is a modern interpretation of the baroque form, filled with folk music from several nations.”

Guest soloist Gerard Gibbs is well known to Southern Alberta audiences.  For many years, he was principal oboist with the LSO, and has served as the Executive and Artistic Director for The Empress Theatre Society, where he founded the Fort Macleod International Music Festival.  As an oboist, he has performed with New York’s Waverly Consort, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque, Vancouver’s Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra.  Currently, he is the Managing Director of the Key City Theatre in Cranbrook, BC, a performing arts, conference, and cultural centre for the people of the East Kootenays.

The season continues on May 2 with a Chamber Series event by Musaeus inspired by the fiddling tradition, and the final Master Series of May 5, featuring Young Artist Competition winner Eleanor Yu on Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

Master Series tickets range from $20 - $55, and are available at lethbridgesymphony.org or by calling 403.328.6808 between 1:00 and 5:00 pm.  Audience members age 15-29 can sign up for the LSO Access Pass and receive further discounts.