From:  Jane Polett, Quincy Symphony Orchestra 217-222-2856 qsoa@adams.net

   
HEADLINE:  QSO Season Opener is a Family Affair!

 
The Quincy Symphony Orchestra is celebrating A LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE, the 60^th Anniversary season.  On Saturday, October 13 at 7:30PM in the Morrison Theatre, the season will open with GENERATIONS, featuring cellist Harriet Yount, her children Marcia Yount and Letitia Yount Bryant, and violinist Brian Gehrich in a performance of Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin, cello, oboe, bassoon, and orchestra. 

Quincyan Harriet Yount recently returned to Quincy after a professional career in Arizona and Mexico.  She is a charter member of the QSO, and performed many chamber works here in Quincy in the early years of the Quincy Symphony Orchestra Association.  She was a charter member of the Scottsdale (AZ) Symphony and was principal cellist for 2 years before moving to Guadalajara, Mexico to play principal cello for the chamber orchestra there.  She toured South America with the Las Americas Symphony.  She has been an active chamber musician throughout her musical career, and performed regularly with a professional string quartet in Arizona. 

A native of Quincy, Marcia Yount studied at the University of Louisville with Daniel McAnaninch and in Chicago with Ray Still.  She has been a resident of Mexico since 1975, and has been solo oboist of the Mexico City Philharmonic for the past 17 years.  As a member of Sinfonietta Ventus, she has recorded 3 CDs, and has toured Italy, Columbia, and throughout Mexico.

Letitia Yount Bryant is the principal bassoonist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the TSO Wind Quintet, and the Tucson Pops Orchestra.  She has performed with many professional orchestras throughout her career, and began her solo career in 1979 as Bassoon Soloist of the United States Army Field Band.  She has since appeared as a soloist three times with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and twice with the Tucson Pops Orchestra among others.  Born in Quincy, Tish began her musical career on piano and studied violin with Don Langellier, QSO Principal Second Violinist. 

Brian Gehrich is the Assistant Concertmaster of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra.  He is a member of the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestra and of the Opera Illinois Orchestra.  He has a private teaching studio and teaches at the Suzuki Violin School of the Sun Foundation in Peoria, IL.  He has played with the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria and also with the Rome Festival Orchestra in Italy.  Brian is a native of Quincy, was a QSO Young Artist Competition Winner, and has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician many times in recitals here and throughout the area.

Haydn wrote the Sinfonia Concertante as a courtesy to the first-desk musicians of the London orchestra which performed his symphonies during his visit to London in 1792.  The work cleverly combines musical styles from the past baroque and the contemporary classical eras.  Sinfonia Concertante was first performed by the QSO in 1988 under the baton of conductor Jack Ranney.  The soloists for that performance were violinist Kristin Turner, oboist Lana Winkeljohn, cellist Roxanne Fess, and bassoonist Cathy Flick.  Ms. Fess and Ms. Flick are current members of the QSO. 

Other works on the program include Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major.    Composed in 1873, Brahms’ Variations was his first work for orchestra in fourteen years, and predates his First Symphony by three years.  The Variations are often regarded as Brahms convincing himself he was ready to write a complete symphony.            Beethoven wrote his Second Symphony in the summer of 1802. It was during this period that he expressed to his closest friends and in his own private writings his suicidal despair over his growing deafness.  Beethoven’s feelings of despondency are not revealed in his composition, as the Second Symphony is filled with musical humor and beauty.

Tickets for GENERATIONS will be available at the door or at Wild Birds Unlimited in Quincy, or may be reserved in advance by calling 222-2856.  Individual concert tickets will be $15 for adults and $12 for senior citizens, with children under age 18 admitted free and encouraged to attend.  Save money and time by purchasing a Season Ticket for the entire A LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE Season!  All QSOA concerts are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.  The GENERATIONS Concert is sponsored by the Quincy Herald-Whig.  Visit www.qsoa.org for more information.