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Summer Orchestra Series Opener Celebrates Father’s Day

3 Jun 2014 | Master Sgt. Kristin duBois United States Marine Band

The Marine Chamber Orchestra will kick off its Summer Orchestra series with an all-Bach concert at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 7 at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria. Conducted by Assistant Director Capt. Michelle A. Rakers, the concert will highlight the father/son relationship of Johann Sebastian Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, in addition to celebrating C. P. E. Bach’s 300th birthday this year. The program will consist of J. S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067, featuring flutist Staff Sgt. Heather Zenobia, and his Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041, featuring soloist and concertmaster Master Gunnery Sgt. Claudia Chudacoff. The second half will bring Staff Sgt. Zenobia back to the stage for C. P. E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in D minor, H. 426 and the concert will conclude with C. P. E. Bach’s Sinfonia in A, W. 182, No. 4.

The junior Bach, Johann’s second son, managed to carve out a well-respected musical career for himself despite growing up in the shadow of his famous father. Cornell University professor and organist Annette Richards said that, “Outside music, the cultural references of J. S. Bach were more or less exclusively theological. But with C. P. E.  Bach, things are completely different. Engaged with poets, painters, philosophers, his music is a reflection of the burgeoning secular discourse of his time.” His Sinfonia in A, for example, was commissioned by Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a wealthy patron and close friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Critics and musicologists have determined that C. P. E.’s unique and somewhat edgy style is not only what sets him apart from his father and other composers of his time, but it is what makes his music so satisfying for the musicians and the listeners alike.

Read Concertmaster Master Gunnery Sgt. Claudia Chudacoff's Blog Post

Program and notes
  

The concert is free; no tickets are required. Parking is available for $6. The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center is located at 3001 North Beauregard Street in Alexandria, Va.