Music of our time, for our time

SULLIVAN COUNTY — Over the past 10 days, the word “normal” has assumed new and different meanings. As we reinvent, rather than return to, “normal,” music, sweet music gives solace to many, as it has in all times and places.

The Delaware Valley Chamber Orchestra will present “Music of Our Time,” a concert featuring new works by area composers, on Saturday, September 22, 2001, at 8:00 p.m. at the Tusten Theatre, Narrowsburg, and Sunday, September 23 at 2:00 p.m. at the Seelig Theatre, Sullivan County Community College, Loch Sheldrake. Ron Defesi will conduct.

The audience will be treated to six premieres, each highlighting different sections of the orchestra. “Calls,” a concerto for two French horns by David Tcimpidis of Livingston Manor, features horn players Clare and Linda Van Norman. “Time Factor” is a String Quartet by Thurman Barker of Jeffersonville, while Narrowsburg’s Kevin Vetrees has composed “A Study for Orchestra.”

Beacon’s Joseph Bartolozzi’s work, “Trio con Brio” was composed for the winds section and Monticello’s Roy Singer uses the full orchestra in “Chamber Symphony.”

Other orchestral pieces are Joseph Hannan’s “Mihrab,” which refers to a specific fantastically ornamented mihrab, or niche, in the mosque of Cordoba in southern Spain, and Albert Viserta’s “Prelude in G minor.” Also on the program are tenor and baritone arias from Glady’s Moskowitz’ “The Fountain of Youth,” to be sung by Marshall Cooper and David Petrie, respectively.

The Delaware Valley Chamber Orchestra is an outgrowth of the Ill Winds Chamber Ensemble founded by Gloria Krause. The group has been producing and performing original works by area composers for over a decade. This concert is made possible in part by a grant from the Sullivan County Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by Delaware Valley Arts Alliance.

Author Thea Halo will read from her original work, “Not Even My Name,” at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 23, upstairs at the Arts Center, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg. Her account of her mother’s survival of the 1919-23 Greco-Turkish War, when Pontic Turks, Armenians and Assyrians were persecuted, is meant to be an acknowledgement of a people’s suffering. The fact of Mrs. Halo’s survival is relevant, anew, for our time.

Information about most of the above events appears elsewhere in this issue of TRR. Questions about other local arts activities? Call the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, your arts connection, at 845/252-7576.