Some Foothills citizens with an aptitude for music have the opportunity to blow their own horns this weekend. The Foothills Philharmonic Orchestra, consisting of 23 amateur musicians from across the region, will exhibit its talent in the concert Spring Loaded May 25 at the High River United Church and May 26 at the Okotoks United Church. Both concerts begin at 7 p.m. “What’s particularly exciting is these are your friends and neighbours,” said conductor and artistic director Terry Lee. “There’s some extraordinary talent in the community that has agreed to work together in a volunteer organization to provide beautiful music for the Foothills. ‘The majority of the musicians are highly skilled.” Lee said Spring Loaded will feature numbers by the orchestra as a whole, as well as music by the group’s brass quintet and some solo and duet pieces. Among the pieces the chamber orchestra will perform are Joseph Haydn’s 101st Symphony The Clock and Camille Saint-Saëns’ violin concerto Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. In addition, the orchestra’s brass quintet will perform Bach’s Fugue in G minor and Giovanni Gabrieli’s Canzon A12. “It’s going to be a great evening of really wonderful music,” Lee said. “We’ve got talented musicians from literally all across the Foothills region and south Calgary.” The concert offers an affordable way for rural residents to experience live orchestral music in an intimate setting. “It’s really going to be quite a lively up-close contact of music unlike what you get in a large performing venue,” Lee said. “You’re sitting close to the musicians so it’s really quite a delightful experience. It’s a fresh and uplifting musical environment.” Earlier in the season, the orchestra collaborated musically with the Foothills Philharmonic choirs and jazz chorus in its first full season as a group. The orchestra performed a pre-concert in June and this weekend is the group’s second full concert. “We’re performing a full symphonic work where the orchestra is the feature music of the event,” he said. “It’s just a jaw-dropping performance.” The classical concert will cover music from the Baroque Period, said Lee. “Classical music is everywhere in society,” he said. “It underscores our movies, it’s often the music of theatre and in many ways it’s the music of our lives as it brings background in some cases. It brings character, it brings colour.” The makeup of the orchestra is a remarkable one, says Lee. “Any time you put 20-plus musicians together and invite them to play in concert with one another there’s just a collaboration that is very impressive,” he said. “It’s a very community-minded thing to engage in. It’s an exciting experience to be in the presence of musicians who are creating that music. There’s an excitement to a live performance like that.” Lee said the orchestra has a real range of musicians from music teachers with professional training to students experiencing their first orchestra and seniors who returned to an instrument to recapture or reinvent themselves in something they’ve loved all their life. “There’s a good spirit of collaboration,” he said. “Senior musicians go out of their way to help musicians with less experience. It’s a great place to build networks of friendships and collaboration within the community.” Tickets to see the Foothills Philharmonic Orchestra perform cost $20 each and $15 for teens and seniors. Those ages 12 and under are free. Tickets are available online, at the door or at Sobeys in both Okotoks and High River.
