High School South Philharmonia Orchestra and Concert Choir, under the direction of Jean Mauro and Janice Chapin, completed an overseas spring tour in St. Petersburg, Pushkin, and the medieval city of Novgorod.##M:[more]##
The Philharmonia’s program began with Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterpiece, Scheherezade, and Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. The concert choir’s repertoire included Robert Schumann’s Zigeunerleben, a diverse medley of spirituals as well as pieces with international appeal such as Esto Les Digo, Tres Cantos Nativos dos Indios Krao, among other selections.
In St. Petersburg’s Smolny Cathedral, the musicians joined with a choir of the Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music and the Mussorgsky State Ballet troupe and performed Mechta (“dream”), a benefit concert for a Russian orphanage.
The concert culminated in a combined performance of Alexander Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances, one of the jewels of classical Russian repertoire.
The highlights of the tour also included an invitation by the Novgorod Philharmonic Society to participate in the 38th Annual Festival of Russian Music held in the Rakhmaninov Institute of Fine Arts with members of the Pushkin Music School.
At the Rahkmaninov Music School, the High School South choir joined the Russian choir to sing Russian Folk songs. First chair members of the High School South Philharmonia also performed Mendelssohn’s outstanding Octet for strings.
The conclusion of the tour was a performance in the Rose Pavilion of Pavlovsk Palace.
