Columbus is the hometown for many fine musicians. We have singers who are appearing on Broadway, teachers at all levels including at major universities and privately, composers, conductors of professional ensembles and performers who appear throughout our community, our state, our country and the world.
We have been blessed with a community that nurtures musical talent and gives it opportunities to grow and blossom. “Hometown Talent,” the Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Sunday, is a perfect example of our community’s efforts to showcase and develop the musical talents with which we are blessed.
The concert featured four solo performers in three selections that highlighted each of them in their varying stages of musical growth. First was the winner of its Fourth Annual Youth Concerto Competition, violinist Minjung Kim. A junior at Columbus North High School, Kim performed the first movement of Dmitri Kabalevsky’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in C, Op.48.” She demonstrated a fine technique for such a young performer with good articulation during many rapid melodic passages and collaborated nicely with Maestro Josh Aerie through many intricate and subtle changes of mood and tempo.
The audience rewarded her efforts with sustained applause bringing her back onstage for a second bow after her performance.
Orchestra member Paul Hunt was next featured in “Concerto for Trumpet in D,” by Johann Friedrich Fasch. A composition from the Baroque period, the orchestra supported Hunt very well while still maintaining the proper stylistic lightness and buoyancy without covering his lyric trumpet sound. Utilizing the terraced dynamics so fundamental to this musical period, Hunt’s delivery was solid and appropriately ornamented.
This three-movement work was again well received by the audience that was well accommodated by the Custer Nugent Performance Hall at The Commons.
The final two featured soloists of the afternoon were veterans Laura Andrews, principal second violin and Phil Palermo, concertmaster, in a work by J. S. Bach “Concerto for Two Violins in d minor.” Their musical maturity was delightfully evidenced by their precise timing, elegant phrasing and engaging interplay that made their performance both entertaining and musically satisfying. Their own enjoyment in performing this work was easily seen by the audience with their occasional glances and smiles at each other and in the ease with which Aerie and the symphony followed their musical leading.
As delightful as these performances were, two other moments in the concert stood out. The opening piece “Rosamunde Overture” from The Magic Harp, D. 644 by Franz Schubert was played in a side-by-side format. Here, nine young student performers (members of the Laura Andrews Strings Studio) played next to veteran members of the orchestra. Sharing a music stand, these young musicians worked in collaboration with their veteran colleagues and benefited from the guidance of their musical training and experience.
Under the mentorship of Aerie, these aspiring young artists had the opportunity to perform as young professionals with a seasoned orchestra and revel both in the musical moment and in the audience’s spirited response.
Also in this theme of musically nurturing young people, the ensemble ended the concert with the well-known orchestra favorite “Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67” by Sergei Prokofiev. With sparkling narration by the Rev. Nic Cable, the symphony musically told the story of young Peter and his adventures with several animals and particularly with one crafty wolf.
Featuring different instruments and sections of the orchestra portraying the different animals as well as some hunters shooting at the wolf, the piece delighted the many children who were present in the audience. Moving in time to the music in their seats and sometimes even dancing in the aisles to the stirring music, this performance by the orchestra encouraged these youngest new concert goers to experience the world of their musical imaginations, and thereby hopefully to one day make music on their own.
The hometown crowd responded to this hometown concert by their hometown orchestra with a well deserved standing ovation.
J. Kevin Butler is a graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and was a high school choral director for more than 20 years. He is currently director of music for the First United Methodist Church of Columbus.
