Albany Symphony Orchestra concludes season with ‘Dance Rhythms’

ALBANY — The Albany Symphony Orchestra will wrap up its Paul Peach Masterworks Concert series on Saturday with “Dance Rhythms,” a program that will feature one of its principle players while also putting concert-goers in a mood to dance.

“This is our last of the regular concerts,” Music Director and Conductor Claire Fox Hillard said in a recent interview. “We’re featuring one of our regular orchestra players — Elizabeth Goode. She’s the flute professor at Valdosta State (University) and a long-standing principle player in the orchestra.”

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Municipal Auditorium, 200 N. Jackson St.

Goode will be showcased when the ASO performs Leonard Bernstein’s “Halil,” a nocturne for solo flute. Hillard said having Goode, who also is principle flutist with the Valdosta Symphony, step to the front as featured performer gives concert-goers a chance to get to know and to appreciate the talents of one of the musicians who is usually seen only in the context of the full orchestra.

“I like doing that on occasion,” Hillard said. “They’re usually in the orchestra, and it gets them out front and kind of helps people musically meet these members of the orchestra. She’s a fabulous flute player, and she cranks out students who get jobs all over the place.”

A professor of music at VSU, Goode is active with orchestras throughout the Southeast. She has a doctorate in musical arts from Yale University, where she studied under Thomas Nyfenger. Before coming to Valdosta State, she served on the faculties of Maryville College and the University of Tennessee, where she earned her master’s degree in music before earning master’s degrees in music and musical arts from Yale. She also served as flutist with the symphonies in Knoxville, New Haven and Oak Ridge.

In summer 2011, Goode joined the music faculty of the Orfeo International Music Festival in Vipiteno, Italy. She also is a frequent adjudicator, clinician and performer at state and national conventions, including the National Flute Association, American Society of Composers and Music Educator’s National Conference.

The performance of “Halil” — the Hebrew word for flute — is a continuation of the Albany Symphony’s season-long tribute to the centennial of the birth of Bernstein. The piece premiered in 1981 with Jean-Pierre Rampal performing with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. The work was inspired by Israeli flutist Yadin Tanenbaum, who at age 19 was killed in his tank in 1973 during the Six-Day War.

The piece will be preceded by “Four Dances from Estancia, Op. 8a” by Alberto Ginastera, an Argentine native. The work was commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein, director of the American Ballet Caravan, who became of aware of Ginastera while his group was touring South America. The caravan group disbanded, but Ginastera extracted the “Four Dances” suite from the work to keep it from disappearing.

“The first piece we’re doing by Ginastera uses a lot of percussion,” Hillard said. “Again, like we did with our first concert, we’re going to feature our new percussion equipment.”

The ASO will return after the intermission to perform a work by one of Hillard’s favorite composers.

“We end with Beethoven, just good meat and potatoes Beethoven,” Hillard said of the concluding work “Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92.”

“The postcard that went out said, ‘Shall we dance?’ Richard Wagner called Beethoven’s 7th Symphony the apotheosis of the dance because he felt like the rhythms in it were dance-like and propelled it and gave it that kind of idea,” Hillard said.

The maestro said he thinks it will be a fitting conclusion to the season.

“It’s a traditional concert in a lot of ways,” Hillard said. “There’s an opening piece which will feature the percussion of the orchestra so the audience can meet the percussionists. Then we’ll have the flute solo and the audience can meet her (Goode). Then Beethoven, just a good staple in the repertoire to end the season on a high note.”

Reserved seats are $35. General admission seating is $25 for adults and $10 for students. Know the Score, pre-concert notes by Hillard, is at 6:30 p.m. and is free with admission. The Conductor’s Circle, a post-concert social at the Albany Area Arts Council next door, where audience members can meet the musicians and enjoy refreshments, is $20. Tickets are available at the ASO website, albanysymphony.org, or contact the symphony office at (229) 430-8933.

While this is the final performance of the concert series, the ASO will have a fundraiser concert, “Swinging on the River!,” at 7:30 p.m. May 12 at the Veterans Park Amphitheater across from the Albany Civic Center.

Contact freelance writer Jim Hendricks at [email protected]. Follow @JimEHendricks on Twitter.