As we get excited for warmer weather and sunshine, the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra (OSO) is celebrating with two separate performances in March.
Exotic Flavours is a concert that is a celebration of music that is truly international.
Every toe will be tapping throughout this tuneful evening as the OSO performs with guest artist, Toronto’s Quartetto Gelato to a program that includes Vittorio Monti’s Czárdás, Astor Piazzola’s tango, as well as Italian folk songs and Russian dances.
The concert opens in Vernon at the Performing Arts Centre on Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m., with an additional performance March 6 at 8 p.m. in Kelowna.
“We are really excited to welcome our guest artists Quartetto Gelato to our stage next month as we celebrate the coming of spring in our valley,” said OSO music director Rosemary Thomson. “What better way to celebrate than with lively tunes that will make you want to get up and dance in the aisles.”
March also showcases the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra’s annual family matinée performance. Your Story at the Symphony, March 7 at the Kelowna Community Theatre, features eight winning stories from the OSO’s storywriting contest held in the fall.
Each of the stories will be brought to life by narrator Colin deBoucier and illustrated musically with the OSO conducted by Thomson.
“The stories show the wonderful imagination of children’s creativity and tell tales of pirates, monsters, and haunted houses, as well as magic trees and hockey players,” said Thomson.
Music ranges from familiar orchestra classics such as Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (think Smurfs) to Saint Saens’ Danse Macabre, featured in Disney’s Fantasia, to popular tunes from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Hockey Night in Canada among others.
The OSO has also teamed up with Bumbershoot Children’s Theatre to create an experience that is part performance and part workshop. Entitled Soundplay, the audience will be immersed in performance created through sound, music, texture, colour, story, ritual, multimedia and movement.
Soundplay starts at 1 p.m. before Your Story at the Symphony at 2 p.m., March 7 at the Kelowna Community Theatre.
Tickets are $20/adult, $15/senior, $12/youth or $50 for a family four-pack. Tickets for Soundplay can be added on to the family matinée tickets for $10 (for adult and one child, additional children are $5 each). Tickets can be purchased online at www.okanagansymphony.com or by calling 250-862-2867.
Tickets for the OSO’s performance of Exotic Flavours with Quartetto Gelato, March 5 at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre, are $52.50/adult, $45.50/senior and $24.50/youth 18 or younger, and are available at the Ticket Seller box office in the centre. Call 250-549-7469 or order online at www.ticketseller.ca.
