VERO BEACH — The Atlantic Classical Orchestra will present its final concert of the season on Thursday March 29 at the Waxlax Center for the Performing Arts, 1895 Saint Edwards Dr., in Vero Beach and Friday, March 30 at the Lyric Theatre in Stuart. Show times are 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Tickets for the Vero Beach performance can be purchased by calling 772-460-0850 or online at www.acomusic.org . Tickets to the 4 p.m. performance are $55 and $60 for the 8 p.m.
Concert attendees are encouraged to arrive 50 minutes early to listen to the pre-concert discussion by Maestro Stewart Robertson.
This final concert features ACO’s principal bassist, Luis Gomez -Imbert performing Serge Koussevitzky’s Double Bass Concerto. Other highlights of the performance include Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Jacques Ibert’s fun Divertissement.
Atlantic Classical Orchestra Principal Bassist Luis Gomez-Imbert enjoys a multi-faceted career as performer and pedagogue. Raised in the rich Venezuelan musical tradition, Gomez graduated Summa Cum Laude from Chicago’s Northwestern University in 1988.
Under the guidance of Jeff Bradetich and Warren Benfield he decided to study the double bass and has been fortunate to study with great artists such as Jeff Bradetich, Gary Karr, Bertram Turetzky, Frantisek Posta, David Walter and Edgar Meyer. As a result of his work with the famous double bass soloist, Gary Karr, Luis was featured in ABC Good Morning America’s documentary broadcast of Gary Karr playing alongside Karr.
Gomez-Imbert joined the music faculty of Florida International University in the fall of 1994 as Professor of Double Bass Studies and Director of the FIU New Music Ensemble.
One of the hallmark pieces performed for this final concert is Aaron Copland’s beloved Appalachian Spring. This orchestral milestone work features the American Shaker tune “Simple Gifts.”
The piece is described by the composer as “a pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the last century. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests now and then the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end the couple are left quiet and strong in their new house.”
The concert also includes Rossini’s Overture to Il Signor Bruschino and Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll.
The 2012 Vero Beach Concert Series is sponsored by Wilmington Trust.