The Louisiana Sinfonietta can now lay its own claim on the piece, especially the final note.

It was triumphant. And it’s amazing how so much significance can be packed into a single note.

The Shostakovich composition did [...]]]> Dmitri Shostakovich declared the “Scherzo” for his “Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11” as “the best thing I’ve ever written.”

The Louisiana Sinfonietta can now lay its own claim on the piece, especially the final note.

It was triumphant. And it’s amazing how so much significance can be packed into a single note.

The Shostakovich composition did more than anchor the end of the Sinfonietta’s final concert of the 2011-12 season. It also marked the end of a triumphant season that included a performance in Carnegie Hall in New York.

This triumph belongs to the performers in the Sinfonietta and its musical director and conductor Dinos Constantinides. So, it was more than appropriate that this concert, titled “20th Century Classics and Music From LSU,” be performed only by the Sinfonietta with no guest performers on the program.

The concert took place Sunday in the LSU School of Music Recital Hall.

The first half featured a string sextet of Sinfonietta members performing Richard Strauss’ “String Sextet” from the opera “Capriccio” and Arnold Schoenberg’s “Transfigured Night.”

The full Sinfonietta took the stage after intermission for the next three pieces, each highlighting the group’s wind players.

Now, here is where listeners could compare what they were hearing on stage to what was happening outside. Pieces by the string sextet were steady in their flow, but never broke into a run.

They seemed to represent the final remnants of winter, which were completely dispelled when the Sinfonietta began playing Constantinides’ composition “Soundwaves for Chamber Orchestra.”

The concert became a celebration of sorts when the group played the world premiere of Matthew Evancho’s “The Singularity.”

This is where the wind instruments’ bright sound matched the sunshine outside, the happy chatter of students on the Parade Grounds, and the cheers in Alex Box Stadium across campus.

Winter’s oppression is officially over, and the Sinfonietta welcomed that special time of year when everything is winding down, school is almost out and everyone can relax and celebrate their triumphs.

Of course, the triumph in this particular song belongs to Evancho, a doctoral student and graduate assistant at LSU, where he studies under Constantinides. Evancho’s past compositions not only have been performed by the Sinfonietta but the Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic and the Grammy Award-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird.

His composition “To Believe” was performed at the 2012 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

Evancho took his bow with the Sinfonietta upon conclusion of the song, and the wind players exited the stage, leaving behind the strings to hit a home run with Shostakovich’s “Prelude and Scherzo,” marking the end of a triumphant season.

2. October 21, 2012 – LSU School of Music Recital Hall Antonio Vivaldi: [...]]]> 1. September 23, 2012 – LSU School of Music Recital Hall
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Two Trumpets
Brian Shaw, James West, trumpets
Mozart: Piano Concerto
Maria Asteriadou, piano
Dinos Constantinides: Violin Concerto No 2
Espen Lilleslaten, violin
Alan Hovhaness: Overture Op. 76, No. 1
John Metcalf, trombone
W.A. Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major
Espen Lilleslaten, violin

2. October 21, 2012 – LSU School of Music Recital Hall
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Bassoon in C Major
Gabriel Beavers, bassoon
Peter Dickinson: Monologue for Strings
Dinos Constantinides: Music for Bill
Jules Demersseman: Fantasie for Saxophone and Strings
Pedro Iturralde: Czardas for Saxophone and Strings
Theodore Kerkezos, saxophone
Edvard Grieg: Holberg Suite, Op. 40

3. January 27, 2013 – LSU School of Music Recital Hall
‘Music for the Young at Heart’
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Oboe and Bassoon
Elizabeth Miller, oboe
Scott Miller, bassoon
Richard Wagner: Adagio for Clarinet and String Orchestra
Victor Drescher, clarinet
Franz Schubert: Rondo in A Major for Violin and Strings
Lin He, violin
J.S. Bach: Piano Concerto No. 7 in G minor
Unhi Kim, piano
Judy Constantinides: Musical Story
 
4. March 17, 2013 – LSU School of Music Recital Hall
Luigi Boccherini: Symphony No 6
Dinos Constantinides: Transformations for Clarinet and Orchestra
Robert DiLutis, clarinet
W.A. Mozart: Rondo Concertant in Bb for Violin and Orchestra, K. 269
Kelly Smith Toney, violin
Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Concerto in D Major
Michael Gurt, piano

5. April 28, 2013 – LSU School of Music Recital Hall
Sinfonietta Soloists

Summer Dreams

Tuesday, June 5 2:30 p.m. – Jones Creek

Monday, June 11 10:00 a.m. – Scotlandville

Tuesday, June 12 10:00 a.m. – Greenwell Spgs

Wednesday, June 13 2:30 p.m. – Bluebonnet

Thursday, June 14 10:00 a.m. – Main Library

All concerts are free and intended for all ages.

May 4, 2010

Thoughts of oil spreading through the Gulf faded on a rainy Sunday afternoon when audience members were greeted by Louisiana Sinfonietta-style sunshine in First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge’s sanctuary.

More specifically, the Sinfonietta’s performance of Giselle Eastman’s newly composed “Eternal Sunshine in [...]]]> Robin Miller of The Advocate

May 4, 2010

Gray skies, lurking oil don’t dim Sinfonietta aura

Thoughts of oil spreading through the Gulf faded on a rainy Sunday afternoon when audience members were greeted by Louisiana Sinfonietta-style sunshine in First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge’s sanctuary.

More specifically, the Sinfonietta’s performance of Giselle Eastman’s newly composed “Eternal Sunshine in Caracas” replaced gray skies with musical sun rays in the Sinfonietta’s 2009-2010 season finale, which featured bassoonist Gabriel Beavers, soprano Amy Porter and Greek violinist Georges Demertzis.

Though the performance of Eastman’s piece gave audience members a taste of sunlight that seemed to be absent throughout the weekend, it was Demertzis’ powerful solo on Dinos Constantinides’ composition “Kafantaris Violin Concerto No. 3, LRC 246” that brought them to their feet.

Constantinides is the Sinfonietta’s conductor and musical director. Sunday’s performance was the premiere of his violin concerto, and Dermertzis’ solo deserved its standing ovation.

His performance showed a range of expression and emotion so wide the audience couldn’t help being captivated.

Demertzis was born in Chalkida, Greece, and studied in Athens’ Hellenic Conservatory. He has performed with orchestras throughout the world.

But Demertzis’ performance didn’t rouse the audience until the program’s end. His appearance was preceded by several Sinfonietta ensemble pieces and two that featured soloists Beavers and Porter.

Beavers’ bassoon solo was both haunting and lyrical in Edward Elgar’s “Romance for Bassoon and Orchestra, Op. 62,” and Porter’s commanding performance of W.A. Mozart’s “Abduction from the Seraglio — Konstanze Aria, K. 384” filled the auditorium.

The room seemed to act as a sponge, soaking in Porter’s powerful soprano voice and expanding from floor to ceiling, from wall to wall. She received an enthusiastic audience reception, as did Beavers.

Beavers is an assistant professor of bassoon at LSU; Porter is pursuing her doctorate of musical arts with a specialty in voice there.

In the drizzle after the concert, audience members returned to their cars and to a reality where a mass of oil relentlessly continued toward the Louisiana coast.

But the Sinfonietta’s finale offered them some moments of musical respite, where the sun shone bright.

Link to the Article at The Advocate