South Shore Orchestra departs for China to share the universal language of music

While many NWI residents are out scouting for the best day after deals, SSO will be on a 6 AM bus to O’hare to depart for Shanghai!

SSO once again will embark on a musical adventure half way around the world on Monday, December 26th when they depart for Shanghai, China and their seven concert tour of four different southeastern provinces south of Shanghai. The seven year old Northwest Indiana community orchestra based in Valparaiso was once again invited by the Confucius Institute of Valparaiso University and Beijing to travel over the New Year's holiday to bring our two cultures closer together through the language of music. The 2009-10 China Adventure was a successful and rewarding experience for all those who participated resulting in many new friendships and enhanced awareness of the culture and now, another opportunity sponsored and hosted by the Confucius Institute and the Chinese government.

Conductor Troy Webdell and the orchestra accepted the invitation in late winter, then began designing a program that enhanced SSO’s 2011 season theme of Global Expressions. The music chosen amplifies and celebrates the universality of music by blending favorites from the traditions of American tales of adventure as well as opera standards and several traditional Chinese compositions. Merged together, it will provide a dynamic evening charged with energized orchestration and a blend of diverse and dedicated musical talent. As on the last tour, audiences will enthusiastically engage the musicians afterwards asking for autographs and wanting to share their English language skills. One member last time described the experience as “rock star” status.

Joining SSO regular members this time are invited musicians from several groups including Lansing, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Michigan, several Chicago suburbs, and one from Texas--even California and Paris, France make the list. A few will also join SSO in China traveling from Hong Kong and Hangzhou. The cities that host each performance also sponsor and provide the accommodations for the musicians while there, including transportation, lodging, meals and sightseeing. This trip will even include a high speed train ride. The musicians only pay for their airfare. A grant from the Confucius Institute also supports the overall expense.

Webdell’s orchestral design begins with music but also the fine tuning of securing key soloists to expand the musical performance. Soprano Natalie Mann of San Diego will be returning for her 2nd time this season to perform with SSO as featured guest soloist. She was featured in the last concert--a SSO Alan Hohvannes tribute. Her performances are marked by her expressive singing and her vibrant, soaring has performed in Carnegie Hall, with the Chicago Symphony, San Diego Opera and across the country as a recitalist. At an earlier rehearsal at VHS the Saturday after Thanksgiving--there have been only two--Mann’s operatic rendition elicited generous applause from the orchestra after they finished a run through of her piece. Also rising star Seán Kroll a bass-baritone from Chicago, noted for being profoundly emotive and possessing an instrument of unique color and clarity, will join the entourage. He has performed with  the Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Santa Barbara, Saint Petersburg Opera, and in New York, Philadelphia and Milan among others.

David DeBoor Canfield of Bloomington, IN will be the featured composer, whose work Concerto After Gliere for Alto Saxophone will be performed by Stacy Maugans of Valparaiso University where she teaches saxophone, music theory, musicianship and performance pedagogy. An active recitalist, adjudicator and lecturer on the history of saxophone in Russia and the former Soviet Union, she also performed as a member of the Texas Wind Symphony.

This SSO tour group consists of 73 musicians and 23 additional travelers comprised of board members with assigned jobs and tasks as well as family members of the musicians. We will share our American spirit, our Indiana community enthusiasm and love of music with new communities and continue our them, Global Expressions.

We hope to keep you informed of our daily adventures through posts to our blog at SSO China Adventure or our website at southshoreorchestra.com and your community news sources.