By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief
St. Matthew’s Music Guild will conclude its 2022-23 season on Friday, June 2, at 8 p.m., with a concert featuring The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s and Choir of St. Matthew’s Church.
The program is set to feature works by Prokofiev and Vaughan Williams, as well as world premieres of commissioned pieces by David Conte and Dante De Silva.
San Francisco-based composer Conte prepared a three-movement cantata “Hymn To Life” in honor of longtime Music Guild board member and former president Fred Doering, who died in late 2020 of glioblastoma.
“I formed in my mind an image of a remarkable person who inspired everyone through his many actions in life, and especially through the grace with which he met his death,” Conte wrote in his notes about the piece. “Each movement deals with an aspect of what I perceived to be both Fred’s character, and also the universal experiences and challenges all human beings face.”
De Silva’s “Hermitage for Steel Drum and Orchestra” will feature “steel drum virtuoso” Tyler Hunt.
“The sound of the steel drum is often used in popular culture to represent a tropical island paradise, but this stereotype undermines the delicate nuance and raw beauty of the instrument,” according to De Silva. “‘Hermitage’ treats the steel drum as an important member of the orchestra, and utilizes its wide range of timbre and color.”
Other works on the program include Prokofiev’s “Sinfonietta, Op. 5” and Vaughan Williams’ “Flo scampi (Flower of the Fields),” with David Sage as the solo violist.
The evening will begin with a pre-concert presentation, “Liner Note with Tom Neenan,” which is set to start at 7:10 p.m.
The concert will take place at St. Matthew’s Church, located at 1031 Bienveneda Avenue. Tickets are $35.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit musicguildonline.org.
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