At 3 pm on Sunday, Nov 3 in Chenery Auditorium, the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra will open its season with a program called "Song and Dance," with works by Camille Saint-Saëns, Bao Yuankai, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Edvard Grieg. The pieces draw on folk traditions and dance rhythms from around the world. In a conversation with Cara Lieurance, music director Andrew Koehler observed "No matter how complicated, how sophisticated the music making can get…we can't lose that connection to its simplest iteration. There still needs to be something…that harkens back to song or a rhythm that harkens back to dance."
Koehler noted how each year, the orchestra takes on a different character influenced by new and returning members. This year, he says, “it's a chatty one," reflecting a sense of ease and friendship within the group. "I think it means that there's a good sense of friendship kind of burgeoning among the musicians."
Tickets for the concert are available at kjso.org or at the door on Sunday. Note that the start time is an hour earlier, at 3 pm, than in previous seasons.
