By Lee Shepherd
Follow your career path or indulge your passion? Can you do both?
Of course you can, said Evan Meccarello, music director of the Binghamton Community Orchestra. Performers in the BCO – the area’s pre-eminent amateur orchestra — “excel in their chosen careers while continuing to perform beautiful music on their instruments.” After full days of work as doctors and school teachers and librarians and many other professions, they meet faithfully on Thursday evenings to enjoy making music together, just for the fun of it.
Come see that life philosophy played out on Saturday, Nov. 23, when the orchestra presents “Marvels of Melody,” the opening concert in the BCO’s 2024-25 season. The 7 p.m. performance in the Maine-Endwell Middle School auditorium will be preceded at 6:15 p.m. by a pre-concert talk.
The concert features the 2024 Southern Tier Music Teachers’ Association Concerto Competition winner, violinist Michael Wong. The Vestal High School freshman will play Fritz Kreisler’s Praeludium and Allegro.
The long-standing collaboration between the BCO and STMTA has provided solo experiences for many talented students who have gone on to music school and have developed their passion as music professionals or lifelong amateurs and audience members.
The “Marvels of Melody” evening also will include Myroslav Skoryk’s most well-known composition, Melody, which has become a spiritual hymn of Ukraine played around the world. The concert will continue with Franz Schubert’s beloved Unfinished Symphony and Alexander Borodin’s Symphony No. 2, known for its color and character as well as its rousing finale.
Meccarello noted that “this pair of symphonies by Schubert and Borodin capture some of the most lyrical lines possible on our instruments. Both take very different angles on the same key of B minor, with the moody and perfectly refined journey of Schubert and the folkloric storytelling of Borodin. Both have incredible moments that sweep me away every time.
“As a full-time research scientist and teacher, Borodin exemplifies the heights of achievement possible in multiple fields, like many members of the Binghamton Community Orchestra,” he added.
IF YOU GO: The Binghamton Community Orchestra will present “Marvels of Melody” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Maine-Endwell Middle School, 1119 Farm to Market Road, Endwell. Tickets at $10 will be sold at the door. Details: Visit https://binghamtoncommunityorchestra.org or email info@binghamtoncommunityorchestra.org. Concert tip: Are you a novice to classical and orchestral music? The website includes helpful tips on live concert etiquette. Pre-concert chats will equip you with information to understand and enjoy the music.
