On Sunday, April 25, the Milton Academy Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra presented the annual Spring Concert. The concert was the 22nd in honor of long-time Milton music faculty member, Jean McCawley.
The Chamber Orchestra opened the concert with music of Mozart and Bizet. Nick Termyn (Class I) was the soloist for the opening movement of the Mozart Concerto #3 in Bb for Horn and Orchestra. A performance of the Bizet Symphony in C followed Mozart on Sunday’s program. Bizet, who also composed the opera Carmen, wrote this symphony at the age of 17 while he was a student in Paris. The Chamber Orchestra performed this work several times during its concert tour in Spain over spring break. It is a lively work, often compared to another teenager’s composition: Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.
After intermission, the full Milton Academy Orchestra took the stage, opening the second half with a short concert march by Weber. Following the march was a seldom-heard piece by American composer Joshua Missal, Three Episodes from Romeo and Juliet. The Orchestra then performed the dynamic Russian Easter Overture of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and concluded the program with a tribute to the great American film composer Henri Mancini.