>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Cellist Ken Woods, guest performerIf you goWHEN: Nov. 5WHERE: McKenzie Theatre, La GrandeWHEN: Nov. 7WHERE: St. Francis De Sales Cathedral, Baker CityPROGRAM: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"Eleanor's Gift," cello concerto, Chen Yi, Ken Woods, soloist"First Essay for Orchestra," Op. 12, Samuel BarberTickets are available at the door, at the EOU Bookstore, at Sunflower Books, and at Betty's Books in Baker City. Price for a single concert is $10 adult, $8 senior and $5 student. ().

A season planned to highlight and celebrate American music is straight ahead for the Grande Ronde Symphony.

Leandro Espinosa, conductor, said he is pleased and excited to begin his second season with the orchestra with a concert in La Grande Nov. 5 and Baker City Nov. 7.

During the year, the orchestra will premiere works written by students and focusing on American culture and will also include the music of some of the great American masters like Charles Ives.

The first concert of the year features Samuel Barber's "Essay No. 1," a big favorite in American repertoires. Espinosa calls this work "very romantic" as well as "very American," as it also recognizes and pays homage to the European origins of American music.

"Without knowing our roots, we die," Espinosa says.

Also on the program for the first concert is Mozart's Symphony No. 40, in D-Minor. Espinosa says this is the "most perfect piece ever written, in every way," but also the hardest to play, technically and musically. Playing the piece, the symphony attempts to convey the depth of both profound happiness and sadness, all at the same time. It is a pillar of symphonic music, a widely-known favorite throughout the world, Espinosa says.

The program will also feature former GRSO Conductor Ken Woods returning from Wales to solo in Chen Yi's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, subtitled "Eleanor's Gift." The concerto was written in honor of Eleanor Roosevelt for her efforts to advance human rights, and it premiered in 1998 on the 50th anniversary of the acceptance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by 48 nations.

Chen was concert-master of the Beijing Philharmonic until the revolution, when she was exiled to the countryside and sent to plow the fields. In this exile she found inspiration and blessing: she discovered the traditions of the country people and wrote music based on these traditions and the inflections of the Chinese language.