"Are you going soft?" Cara Lieurance asks Andrew Koehler in their preview of the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra's Of Stage and Screen program. He's known for championing rarely-heard and unexpected works and asking players to play original scores instead of easier versions. As it turns out, the program satisfies all of the above. It will take place at 4 pm on Sunday, May 8 at Chenery Auditorium.
The unexpected might be the Hary Janos Suite, based on a Hungarian folk-opera by Zoltan Kodaly, which calls for a cimbalom, a hammer dulcimer-type instrument. Music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who defined the Hollywood sound in the 1930s, will be heard, as will highlights by modern masters Hans Zimmer (Batman Begins), Michael Giacchino (Star Trek: Into Darkness), and John Williams (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial).
Jason Shaye, a violist, surprised Koehler by winning the KJSO Concerto Competition as a pianist. He'll play the first movement of Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1.