Oak Ridge Today

Rock to Bach Music Festival is Saturday at New Hope Center

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Kukuly Fuego

Kukuly and Gypsy Fuego will perform gypsy and American swing jazz at the Oak Ridge Rock to Bach Music Festival on Saturday, March 1, at New Hope Center. (Submitted photo)

The fourth annual Oak Ridge Rock to Bach Music Festival is Saturday.

Rock to Bach is an all-day music festival presented by the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association as a benefit for ORCMA music organizations, such as the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and the world-class Chamber Music Series.

Eighteen groups will perform this Saturday, playing pop, rock, blues, bluegrass, folk, jazz, Celtic, patriotic, Dixieland, swing, klezmer, and classical music.

The festival is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the New Hope Center near the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex. The New Hope Center is next to Scarboro Road, just across from the intersection with Union Valley Road.

Among the performing groups and performers are the Tennessee Schmalz, Knoxville Youth Jazz Orchestra, Early Bird Special Band, Liz and Tim, Jack Russell and the Terriers, Kukuly and Gypsy Fuego, Walker Marema, Silver Winds Choir, and singers with the Oak Ridge Chorus who will perform selections from musicals, operas, and operettas. [Read more…]

Rock to Bach Music Festival on March 1 at New Hope Center

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Classic Beatles and Rock to Bach Music Festival

Fifty years ago, the Beatles, the pop and rock group from England, arrived in America to perform before screaming fans. Now, one of them, Paul McCartney, composes classical music.

Imagine the Beatles walking one way as they pass Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Haydn walking in the opposite direction.

That’s the mental image you might have if you attend Oak Ridge’s fourth Rock to Bach Music Festival on Saturday, Mar. 1.

The annual festival has a new venue this year. It will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the New Hope Center of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Holiday concert on Sunday features Oak Ridge Symphony, Chorus, Sound Company

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Sound Company Children's Performing Choir

The Sound Company Children’s Performing Choir of Oak Ridge is pictured above singing in an earlier concert. (File photo)

The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra will join Sound Company and the Oak Ridge Chorus to “ring in” the holiday season during a concert on Sunday.

The concert starts at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center.

The holiday concert is presented by the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association.

The orchestra, under the direction of Dan Allcott, will open the concert with the “Hanukah Festival Overture,” composed by Knoxville’s own Lucas Richman. Music from “Mass of the Children,” and “Colors of Christmas,” will feature the children and the civic choruses. The performance will be dedicated to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut last year. [Read more…]

ORCMA holiday wreaths for sale through Wednesday

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The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association is taking advance orders for holiday wreaths made from fresh evergreens.

A traditional symbol of the holiday season, the wreaths are made of Fraser Fir (Southern Balsam). Proceeds from the sale are used in ORCMA’s longstanding commitment to the funding of local music organizations.

The wreaths are made to order in sizes ranging from 14 inches to 32 inches and can be customized in larger sizes as wanted. Red or maroon velvet bows are also available by order. Prices for wreaths range from $17 to $30, and bows cost $7. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Chorus has All Saints Day concert tonight

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New Oak Ridge Chorus Director Seth Maples is pictured above. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Civic Music Association)

New Oak Ridge Chorus Director Seth Maples is pictured above. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Civic Music Association)

The Oak Ridge Chorus has an All Saints Day concert at 7:30 pm today (Saturday) at First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge.

It’s a special concert under the direction of new conductor Seth Maples. Musical selections include “Where Your Bare Foot Walks” by David Childs, “When I Hear Music” by Michael Martin, “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Peter Wilhousky, and “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal,” arranged by Alice Parker.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for young adults and youth. [Read more…]

ORCMA opens season with ‘Double Dose of Awesomeness’ in October

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The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association’s 70th musical season, “Excellence to the Second Degree, Bringing you Music that Matters,” will offer Oak Ridgers performances from the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Series of concerts, and the Oak Ridge Chorus.

The orchestra, under the direction of conductor Dan Allcott, will open the season in October with “A Double Dose of Awesomeness” featuring music by Johannes Brahms with violinist Wei Tsun Chang and cellist Wesley Baldwin performing the Brahms’ Double Concerto. That performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26 in the performing arts center at Oak Ridge High School. [Read more…]

Nonprofit lease termination could leave vacant space in central Oak Ridge

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Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic building

Oak Ridge officials have been asked to terminate the 50-year lease on the former Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic building on Badger Road, which would leave vacant space in central Oak Ridge. City officials haven’t decided what to do with the building.

A decision to terminate a 50-year lease agreement on a building once used by a national nonprofit organization to record audiobooks for the dyslexic and visually impaired could open up some office space in central Oak Ridge.

But city officials said they haven’t decided what to do with it yet.

Now partially empty, the split-level two-story building on Badger Road was once home to Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. Located on the south side of Alvin K. Bissell Park, it still houses the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association, which includes the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra and Oak Ridge Chorus. [Read more…]

ORCMA elects officers, appoints board members

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Carmen DeLong and Carol Plasil

Carmen DeLong, left, and Carol Plasil were recently appointed to the board of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association. (Submitted photo)

The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association recently elected new officers and appointed four new board members to its organization, a press release said.

New officers are Audrey Stelson and Syd Ball, co-presidents; Richard Ward, vice president; John Gunning, treasurer; and Jerry Eddlemon, secretary.

Board members added to the organization include Carmen DeLong, Carol Plasil, Alicia Randisi-Hooker, and Mary Childress. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Chorus ends season Saturday with concert at First Baptist

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The Oak Ridge Chorus ends its season Saturday with a concert at First Baptist Church.

The Oak Ridge Chorus ends its season Saturday with a concert at First Baptist Church.

The Oak Ridge Chorus ends its season on Saturday.

Conductor Dan Allcott will introduce Seth Maples, the new Oak Ridge Chorus Director. Maples will sing a solo as well as share the conductor duties with Allcott.

The Chorus will sing Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair,” Franz Joseph’s Schubert’s “To Music,” Johannes Brahm’s “Four Gypsy Songs,” Morten Lauridsen’s “Sure on this Shining Night,” and Charles Bryan’s selections from the opera “Singin’ Billy.” [Read more…]

ORCMA, ORICL benefit from John Million bequest

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John George Million Jr.

John George Million Jr. (Submitted photo)

John Million had a lifelong love affair with classical music, opera, and classic books. Before he died on March 21, 2012, he made sure that two Oak Ridge nonprofit organizations that contributed to his cultural enjoyment would benefit greatly from his legacy.

Dan Allcott, conductor of the Oak Ridge Symphony and Chorus, said: “The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association is honored to be the recipient of a significant bequest from the estate of John Million. The six-figure donation to ORCMA gives us stability during tough economic times.

[Read more…]

Saturday concert features music by two Tennessee composers, dulcimerist


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Stephen Seifert

Stephen Seifert

Dan Allcott has been conducting research—and two professional orchestras: the Bryan Symphony Orchestra in Cookeville and Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra.

He has been studying the life and music of composer Charles Faulkner Bryan, a native of McMinnville who died in 1955 at the young age of 44. The Cookeville orchestra is named after him.

Accompanied by ORSO, the Oak Ridge Chorus on Saturday will sing “The Bell Witch,” a cantata written by Bryan in 1947 while studying with Paul Hindemith at Yale University. The concert will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center.

[Read more…]

See Oak Ridge mayor play at Rock to Bach Music Festival

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Ridge City Ramblers

Members of the Ridge City Ramblers, who will play at the Rock to Bach Music Festival, are, from left, Gary Coleman, Mary Tuskan, Scott Linn, Abbie Hoerner, Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Steve Reddick. (Submitted photo)

Not every city has a mayor who plays a banjo in a band.

Oak Ridge does.

Mayor Tom Beehan and five other musicians are members of The Ridge City Ramblers. The band will perform at Oak Ridge’s third Rock to Bach Music Festival on Jan. 26 at the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Pollard Auditorium.

[Read more…]