Columbia Orchestra

What do an old castle, an ox cart, unhatched chicks, a bustling French marketplace, two Jewish people, and a grand design for a never-built czarist monument have in common?Classical music aficionados can answer that one easily.These are just some of the scenes captured in the paintings and drawings of Russian artist Victor Hartmann -- images that would inspire the artist's friend Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)to compose the most famous museum stroll in the history of music.Linked by a catchy "Promenade" theme that depicts an art-lover determinedly on the move, Mussorgsky's suite of 10 piano pieces inspired by Hartmann's art became "Pictures at an Exhibition," a work still considered one of the great romantic showpieces composed for the keyboard.

Anyone who thinks drug-induced musical dreams are exclusive to 1960s rock-'n'-rollers doesn't know classical music very well.For sitting at the core of the symphonic repertoire is Hector Berlioz's immensely colorful "Symphonie Fantastique," the five-movement tale of a fixated lover and his opium-inspired dream gone bad.With its hair-raising "March to the Scaffold" and a phantasmagoric "Witches Sabbath" punctuated by the sounds of demons, sorcerers and...

Jason Love, conductor of the Columbia Orchestra, is a musician who sticks to his interpretive guns. He conducts a community orchestra that, while studded with talented players, is not really a full-blown professional ensemble, especially in the upper-string departments. So when putting his troops through their paces in, say, Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, Love might well have selected a moderate, straight-ahead approach to round off some of the jagged technical edges a more individualized traversal of the score would reveal.

Borrowing some spiritually charged lingo from the New Age folks, the Columbia Orchestra took the Rouse Theatre stage Saturday evening for a concert titled "Body, Voice, and Spirit." Homage to the "Body" came courtesy of "Rainbow Body," a work by Christopher Theofanides, a contemporary composer affiliated with New York's Juilliard School and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Already recorded by Robert Spano and his Atlanta Symphony on the Telarc label, "Rainbow Body" was last year's winner of Masterprize, one of the music world's most prestigious awards for composition.

Young artists and some wonderfully engaging (if a tad unfamiliar) music will be on display at 8 p.m. Saturday evening when the Columbia Orchestra takes the Smith Theatre stage for its annual spring concert. Appearing with conductor Jason Love will be the winners of the orchestra's Young Artist Competition: Teresa Wang, a clarinetist from Centennial High School, and Richard Zhu, a violinist from Burleigh Manor Middle School. Teresa will play an arrangement of the "Five Bagatelles" by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)

For interesting, innovative musical fare, no regional ensemble will beat the Columbia Orchestra in the 2004-2005 concert season. Oh, the tried-and-true blockbuster masterworks will be there, don't you worry. Maestro Jason Love and his players begin the season with Beethoven's riveting "Coriolan" Overture and Hector Berlioz's phantasmagorial "Symphonie Fantastique," the groundbreaking Romantic work replete with extraordinary depictions of opium-induced love, fixation and murder with a creepy "Witches' Sabbath" tossed in for good measure.

David Dzubay is the winner of the 2005 Columbia Orchestra American Composer Competition; Eric Beach is the 2004 winner of the Yale Gordon Competition; and the audience is the winner when the Columbia Orchestra performs its final concert of the season at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Jim Rouse Theatre. One of the most exciting things about hearing new music is that the listener's opinion about the piece is always right, or, at least, no one can say that the listener's opinion is wrong. The listener is always the winner because no one else has decided that the new composition is a winner; no one else has decided that it is a composition doomed to disappear after only a few performances.

Maestro Jason Love's penchant for the contemporary musical idiom means that his Columbia Orchestra, Howard County's premier ensemble for instrumental music, spends a fair amount of time outside the standard symphonic repertoire. That, however, will not be the case Saturday evening when the Columbians take the Rouse Theatre stage for a program of favorites taken straight from the heart of the classical canon. There is no better-loved overture anywhere than the instrumental prelude to Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro, a story of love and forgiveness triumphant amid the fledgling republicanism of late 18th-century Europe.

Tribute to John Denver -- Columbia Orchestra will present A Tribute to John Denver at 3 p.m. today in Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School, 5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia. Former Denver band members, colleagues and friends will perform Denver's songs. The concert is the first time since Denver's death in 1997 that his music has been performed with a full orchestra. A silent auction of art, antiques, collectibles, sports memorabilia and a guitar autographed by members of the Denver band will open at 2 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the Columbia Orchestra.

Columbia Orchestra seeks musiciansThe Columbia Orchestra, a community orchestra that rehearses weekly and performs six concerts each season, is having auditions for new members.All string players are welcome, and the woodwind and brass sections have openings.Call Annette Szawan at 461-3933 for more information and to schedule an audition.POLICE LOG* Long Reach: 8383-517 block of Tamar Drive: Pry marks were found on a door Thursday but no entry had been gained, police said.8000 block of Green Tree Court: A large container of pennies was taken Thursday after someone pried open a rear sliding glass door.