<body><div>For the first time in more than a decade, the 60-piece Juneau Symphony will be in Sitka Friday, with a concert of beloved, and a few less familiar, works at the Performing Arts Center.The 7 p.m. concert will include selections from the William Tell Overture, Gerschwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and Dvorak’s New World Symphony, among others. Brad Hogarth, conductor of the annual Sitka Holiday Brass, is the guest conductor for the concert.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3q65oM_1087Wsvk00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3q65oM_1087Wsvk00" width="550" height="293" ></figure>Members of the 60-piece Juneau Symphony pose together in full ensemble. The Juneau Symphony is a community-based organization that fosters and creates high-quality musical experiences for youths and adults, contributing to the cultural diversity and vitality of Alaska's Capital City. (Photo Provided)“These are all just absolute blockbuster pieces,” Hogarth said. “The idea is that this is the only concert this season that the Juneau Symphony will be traveling to Sitka, so we really wanted to make it an awesome concert, where people would maybe recognize a lot of pieces on the program, and that people would be really excited about.”Performers and support personnel begin arriving tonight on Alaska Airlines, followed by a larger group Thursday on an Allen Marine catamaran. They’ll have time to practice on the PAC stage and perform the following day.The concert is a collaboration three years in the making between the Juneau Symphony and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp.“We realized it had been so long since we’d been here,” orchestra executive director Charlotte Truitt said of the last visit in April 2012. “One of our strategic goals is to increase our presence in the region, look for ways to connect with neighboring communities, and bring us together through the arts. ... How to make this happen coming out of the pandemic, it took time to get things organized.”The orchestra includes performers from Sitka, including Roger Schmidt, who has been playing trombone with the orchestra for the past few years; soprano Rhiannon Guevin; and cellist Annika Krafcik, but most performers are from Juneau. Truitt said three of the trombone players, Schmidt, Wade Demmert, and Ken Truitt, grew up playing together in Sitka.Charlotte Truitt said the group is a “unique hybrid orchestra” – a blend of musicians, many with degrees in music, and some of whom teach music. Many in the orchestra have strong connections to Sitka, including Truitt, whose husband is from here. About 30 percent of the musicians are guest performers from outside of Juneau, who play in some of the nation's top symphonies up and down the West Coast.One familiar face to Sitkans who attend the annual Holiday Brass here, will be guest conductor Brad Hogarth, a San Francisco area conductor and musician. He is now a candidate for the permanent post of music director for the Juneau Symphony.Hogarth is a professor at San Francisco State University, and conductor and music director of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra in the Bay area, and associate conductor of the Monterey Symphony, among others. This will be his first time to conduct the Juneau Symphony.Hogarth said the New World Symphony is one of the most beloved and frequently performed symphonies. Dvorak was a Czech composer but had moved to New York to teach, and wrote this symphony that’s ''very much in the European tradition of symphonies but with American influences.""He loves the music in America and the history in America and tried to incorporate some of that into his music,” Hogarth said. “It’s got some melodies that are absolutely iconic and wonderful. It’s just exciting and heartfelt.”Schmidt added, "It‘s this really, really amazing time in his life where he’s at the peak of his abilities. And it’s his final symphony. It’s just really a masterpiece."Other familiar pieces are Gerschwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and a selection from the William Tell Overture by Rossini, which will open the show. The concert also will include an aria from Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus,” performed by Rhiannon Guevin of Sitka.“The Juneau opera company is performing the opera so we thought it would be lovely to feature one of their vocalists,” Hogarth said. The Juneau Symphony performance on April 6 will feature a Juneau vocalist, and Guevin will perform here on April 4.“She’s incredible and we thought it would be lovely to feature her here,” he said.Guevin sang this aria, "Spiel ich die Unschuld vom Lande," during her senior year at University of Puget Sound, where she majored in vocal performance. She also won the concerto aria competition, and as the winner sang the piece with the Puget Sound University Orchestra. She is currently operations director at Sitka Fine Arts Camp, and performs professionally in San Francisco with the chorus Vox Humana."It's a superfun and dramatic piece," Guevin said. "It's often referred to as 'the audition aria' because the character Adele is trying to prove her acting chops by embodying different characters so she can break into the acting world."Schmidt, who majored in trombone performance at Oberlin College and Conservatory, has played with the group off and on for about 20 years, starting as a substitute player and then as a regular member for the past few years, performing concerts three or four times a year in the capital city.“It’s a terrific group, there’s nothing like playing symphonic works, there’s just incredible, incredible music, and there’s great players,” Schmidt said when asked what he likes about the group. “It’s fun to play with musicians in the region that I really respect, and it’s awesome to have all these great other players come in and join us. Playing in a good orchestra is just absolutely exhilarating.“There’s nothing like 60 people working in the tightest team you can imagine: so much intent and concentration, cooperation, teamwork and you’re just playing music that’s just amazing. It’s going to be a great show.”Tickets to the concert are available at fineartscamp.org, at the door, or by calling 907-747-3085: $30 for upper orchestra and balcony, and $35 for the first eight rows closest to the stage. The show is sponsored by Allen Marine Tours, and Friends of the Performing Arts Center will host a reception during intermission. Call 907-747-3085 for more information.</div></body>

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For the first time in more than a decade, the 60-piece Juneau Symphony will be in Sitka Friday, with a concert of beloved, and a few less familiar, works at the Performing Arts Center. The 7 p.m. concert will include selections from the William Tell Overture, Gerschwin’s Rhapsody in Blue,...

Sitkans Join Juneau Symphony for Concert Here

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For the first time in more than a decade, the 60-piece Juneau Symphony will be in Sitka Friday, with a concert of beloved, and a few less familiar, works a

Sitkans Join Juneau Symphony for Concert Here

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