The Lone Star Youth Orchestra continues its 24th season on March 8th with a concert titled "Unfinished Business". What’s not finished? Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D. 759. That’s what! We’ll be playing the first two movements of this piece, because that’s all he wrote! The hour-long program also includes the first movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550 and Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia, Op. 26.
Franz Schubert's unfinished 8th symphony remains an enigma to musicologists to this day. Schubert didn't die in the middle of its composition. Rather, he left it halfway completed and then moved onto later projects and another symphony, which is incredibly unusual in terms of unfinished works. It is also often credited as the "first romantic symphony," as it incorporates a certain lyrical nature to its melodies that hadn't been fully realized by other composers to that point. Despite only lasting for two movements, it is one of Schubert's most famous works and one of the more popular of his nine symphonies in particular.
Mozart's 40th symphony, published in 1788, is one of only two that he wrote in a minor key and is one of his most famous. It has a familiar, lilting minor melody that is incredibly hummable and can easily get stuck in your head (in the best way possible).
Jean Sibelius's symphonic masterwork, Finlandia, was written in 1899 as part of a suite of works created in covert defiance of increasing censorship by the Russian Empire of Sibelius's beloved homeland of Finland. Its melodies and hymns represent the struggle and strength of the Finnish people and has remained a work of national pride for them to this day.
Single tickets are available by visiting IrvingArtsCenter.com, by calling (972) 252-2787, or by purchase at the door. Ticket prices are $7.50 per student and $14.50 for adults.
"Unfinished Business" will take place on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. at the Irving Arts Center’s Carpenter Hall. The Arts Center address is 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving, TX 75062.
The Lone Star Youth Orchestra is the only tuition-free youth orchestra in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and is one of the most pivotal pre-college experiences for talented high school instrumentalists. Membership in the Lone Star Youth Orchestra is open to all middle and high school string, woodwind, brass, and percussion players. Information regarding auditions for the 2022-2023 season can be found at www.lascolinassymphony.org/lsyo or by calling (972) 252-4800.
The conductor for the Lone Star Youth Orchestra is Maestro Eliezer Dobrin. Maestro Dobrin received his education from the University of North Texas and Stephen F. Austin State University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in music and a Master of Music in orchestral conducting, respectively. He has been a violinist for twenty-seven years, has taught privately since he was sixteen, and currently works as the orchestra director at the William B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted in Dallas ISD.
For more information about the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra or the Lone Star Youth Orchestra, please visit lascolinassymphony.org.