The Kamuela Philhar-monic Orchestra will open its ninth season with a concert at 4 p.m. Oct. 14 at Hilton Waikoloa Village’s Grand Ballroom. Internationally known violinist Rosalie Macmillan will join the orchestra once again, this time performing the “Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 77” by Johannes Brahms. Also on the program are “Il Matrimonio Segreto, Overture” by Domenico Cimarosa and “Symphony No.104” by Franz Joseph Haydn. Admission to the concert is free, and audience members who have their parking stubs stamped after the concert will receive a $5 reduced parking fee from Hilton Waikoloa Village. A no-host bar featuring wine, beer and soft drinks will be available.
The Kamuela Philhar-monic Orchestra will open its ninth season with a concert at 4 p.m. Oct. 14 at Hilton Waikoloa Village’s Grand Ballroom. Internationally known violinist Rosalie Macmillan will join the orchestra once again, this time performing the “Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 77” by Johannes Brahms. Also on the program are “Il Matrimonio Segreto, Overture” by Domenico Cimarosa and “Symphony No.104” by Franz Joseph Haydn. Admission to the concert is free, and audience members who have their parking stubs stamped after the concert will receive a $5 reduced parking fee from Hilton Waikoloa Village. A no-host bar featuring wine, beer and soft drinks will be available.
Macmillan has won over audiences around the globe since her solo orchestral debut at age 13 with the Utah Symphony. Her first-place finishes at national and international violin competitions led her to a career as a concert violinist, giving recital tours in South America, Europe, South Africa, Canada and throughout the United States. On tour with the Brigham Young University Chamber Orchestra in Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Russia, she had the opportunity to perform at the Cairo Opera House and the Bolshoi Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Appearances as a featured soloist in ballet, ballroom dance, theater and film productions, as well as jazz, rock and pop concerts, have allowed her to share her talent and interest in classical music with new audiences.
Macmillan’s solo repertoire for violin includes works by more than 30 composers, and she has an extensive repertoire for solo violin and orchestra, as well. She has appeared regularly with conductor Joseph Silverstein and the Utah Symphony, and has also soloed with the Westminster Chamber Orchestra, Brigham Young University Philharmonic, Utah Chamber Orchestra, Murray Symphony, Oquirrh Mountain Symphony, UVU Chamber Orchestra, Mormon Youth Symphony, Sundance Theater Orchestra and Granite Youth Symphony. In addition, she has been on the faculty of the Violin Making School of America since 1998 and of the Utah Valley University since 2007. Macmillan plays a 1726 Montagnana violin with a Dominique Peccatte bow, on loan from a generous sponsor.
Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra musical director Dr. Madeline Schatz accepted her former student’s offer to again perform with the orchestra during a “vacation” in Hawaii. Schatz asked her to perform the “Violin Concert in D major, Opus 77,” which was composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend violinist Joseph Joachim. The concerto, which is in three movements, was Brahms’ only violin concerto. Joachim, who premiered it in 1879 along with the Beeethoven Violin Concerto, called it one of the four greatest German violin concerti, and parts of the piece clearly play homage to Beethoven’s work.
The overture to the opera “Il Matrimonio Segreto” is Cimarosa’s most well-known work. He was the most famous and popular Italian opera composer of the second half of the 18th century, and over the course of his highly successful career, he composed more than 65 operas, as well as a significant number of instrumental pieces and works for the church. Some of his other operas continue to enjoy occasional staging, and his overtures are considered remarkable for their melodic invention and sheer vitality. “Il Matrimonio Segreto” is one of only a handful of operas of the period never to have left the opera repertory.
“Symphony No. 104” was Haydn’s final symphony. Haydn is often called “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet” because of his contributions to these musical forms. He was one of the most prominent and prolific composers of the classical period, a close friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven. This symphony was completed in 1795, and premiered in London, so it has became known as his “London Symphony.”
As in past years, this concert will be part of the Daniel Pearl Foundation’s World Music Days, held each October in memory of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002, shortly after 9/11. Pearl, a writer and gifted musician, attempted to build bridges between diverse cultures, and is remembered and admired as a symbol of hope. Daniel Pearl Music Days uses the power of music to inspire respect for differences and promote tolerance.
The orchestra is striving to promote local music education and introduce its music to diverse audiences by keeping admission to concerts free. Since the group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, any contribution in the calabash at concerts, by mail or through its website, kamuelaphil.com, may be tax deductible.