BRATTLEBORO — The Windham Orchestra will collaborate with Michael Finckel and Bennington's Sage City Symphony to present two concerts around the theme “People who Change Our Lives."
Performances are Saturday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m., at Shaftsbury Elementary School, and Sunday, Nov. 13, at 3 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro.
First, Philip Bloch's “For Nick and Alex” speaks of the deaths of two people adored locally, Alex Firth and Nick Widomski, with the music reflecting “loss, the horror of circumstance, and how things are for the living,” according to a news release.
“To be a musician is to create music that examines and elevates our lives, to have direct impact, and this is what our own extraordinary Phil Bloch has created for our community,” Windham Orchestra Musical Director Hugh Keelan said in the news release. “Our audience may experience sadness, panic, the experience of slam poetry, perhaps a movement towards peace."
Of Carl Ruggles' “Sun-Treader,” Keelan said, “we combine forces for this craggy monument to living in an elemental world that also contains humans. This is a very rarely performed work, not to be missed."
Finally, Finckel, a world-class cellist, will play the protagonist in Strauss' inspiring, stunning masterwork “Don Quixote.” The viola solo representing Sancho Panza will be played by Cathy Hall-Schor, widow of Joseph Schor, the first conductor of the Windham Orchestra.