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St. Olaf Orchestra to perform 'Home Concert' tonight

By David Gonnerman '90
February 14, 2008

The St. Olaf Orchestra, conducted by Steven Amundson, will complete this year's Winter Tour with its Home Concert at St. Olaf's Skoglund Center Auditorium Thursday, Feb. 14, at 7:30 p.m. The performance is free and open to the public.

View and listen to the event live at stolaf.edu.

Orchestra08lg
The 2007-08 St. Olaf Orchestra.
Called "one of the best college orchestras in the nation" by Time magazine's Richard Ostling, the orchestra will perform a number of dance motifs, including the overture to Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, La Valse by Maurice Ravel, Mambo from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story and excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. The performance also will feature two student soloists and the premiere of a new piece by Amundson.

The Home Concert will conclude the ensemble's 10-concert Winter Tour to the Southwest, which included a joint performance with the St. Olaf Choir in Mesa, Ariz.

The ensemble
The St. Olaf Orchestra is perhaps best known for its participation in the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival, broadcast on PBS and public radio stations nationwide. In 2007 St. Olaf became the first college or university in the nation to simulcast a live event when it broadcast the Christmas Festival live to nearly 200 movie theaters around the nation. In 2004, the St. Olaf Orchestra was chosen from hundreds of applicants to perform at the conference of the National Association for Music Education.

In addition to performing throughout the United States, and notably as Garrison Keillor's guest on a broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion, the St. Olaf Orchestra has performed internationally throughout Europe. This summer the orchestra will tour Spain.

Conductor Amundson has received numerous honors, including the Hans Haring Prize -- an international conducting competition sponsored by the Mozarteum and National Austrian Radio; Orchestra Educator of the Year by the Minnesota Music Educator's Association; and the Carlo A. Sperati Award for meritorious achievement in music from his alma mater, Luther College. In addition, professional orchestras across the country have performed his compositions.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.