This Sunday at 3 p.m., performances by the Worcester Symphonic Project and the WPI Orchestra will warm a cold winter’s day.
The Worcester Symphonic Project will present Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and the Shubert Mass No. 2 in G major, D 167.
The WPI Orchestra, directed by Douglas Weeks, will be featured separately in its performance of Shubert’s Unfinished Symphony.
The Worcester Symphonic Project, now in its fourth year, is the only orchestral program in the Worcester consortium. The orchestra “unites college students, professional and adult amateur musicians, and qualified young instrumentalists,” according to Music Worcester, which is sponsoring this weekend’s concert. Violinist and violist Peter Sulski, a Worcester native, is artistic director.
WPI musicians have played with the WSP every year, as do students from other area colleges.
At Sunday’s concert, Eric Culver, music director of the Holy Cross Chamber Orchestra, will conduct the Beethoven piece, and guest conductor Bruce Hangen, director of the Indian Hill Orchestra, will conduct the Shubert Mass.
Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for students, and $5 for youth. Tickets are available at www.musicworcester.org or at the door.
Two days later, on the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 16, the annual WPI Small Ensembles Concert will take place at WPI in the Spaulding Recital Room of Alden Memorial. The 7:30 p.m. chamber concert will feature the WPI Woodwind Quintet, the WPI Flute Choir, and the WPI Percussion Ensemble.
The Woodwind Quintet, directed by Douglas Weeks, will play Beethoven’s Wind Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 16, Movements 1 and 3.
Samantha McGill directs the Flute Choir, which will perform three pieces: Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze; Ros Bothan (Rose Cottage) by Catherine McMichael; and Bohemian Rhapsody by Zoe Booth.
Finally, the Percussion Ensemble, under Pieter Struyk’s direction, will play Fanfare for Tambourines (1989) by John Alfieri, as well as Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer (1902). They will conclude with Pulse (1971) by Henry Cowell.
The Small Ensembles concert is free and open to the public.
