Whidbey Island’s Saratoga Chamber Orchestra is presenting “Gypsy Nights” on Monday, April 4 in Oak Harbor and Tuesday, April 5 in Langley.
The SCO, now celebrating its fourth season under the artistic direction of conductor Legh W. Burns, will be performing an evening of Bizet, de Falla and Enescu.
The special guest soloist for the evening will be pianist, Linnea Bardarson performing Manuel de Falla’s expressive and evocative “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” for piano and orchestra. A Seattle native, Bardarson spent her childhood summers on Whidbey Island and excelled in her piano studies, receiving advanced performance degrees from Mills College and New England Conservatory. Currently, she is an active soloist and professional accompanist in the Boston music scene. Linnea has been fortunate to tour Europe with the Massachusetts Symphony and record as soloist with the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic.
Also on the evening’s program, the orchestra will be performing Georges Enescu’s “Romanian Rhapsody #2,” the popular “Ritual Fire Dance” by de Falla and selections from Georges Bizet’s “Carmen Suite #2.”
“This concert is all about atmospherics,” Burns said, “the audience will feel a part of the Romanian gypsy culture, be able to smell the jasmine in the gardens surrounding the Alhambra and spend a little time being beguiled by Bizet’s Carmen, perhaps the most famous gypsy of all. In all, a concert of sensuality, seduction and suggestion.”
The concerts will be held April 4 at Oak Harbor High School and April 5 at South Whidbey High School in Langley. Both start at 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for senior/military. Students 18 and under are admitted free (under 14 must be accompanied by a paying adult).
Tickets are available in Coupeville at Bayleaf, in Oak Harbor at Bayleaf and ClickMusic, in Langley at Moonraker Books and in Freeland at Bookbay. Cash/check and MC/V/Discover accepted at the door. Visit www.saratogachamberorchestra.org.
