True Concord's live season coming to a close; So. AZ Symphony returns for 2nd concert

Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra and True Concord Voices & Orchestra will hold socially distanced live performances this weekend.

Both ensembles have already hosted live performances before small audiences; the volunteer orchestra had a concert Oct. 18 at the Catalyst Arts & Makers Space in the Tucson Mall while True Concord has held several concerts including its season opener Oct. 20 at Dove of Peace Lutheran Church.

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Both require their audiences and performers to wear masks, although the choir members are unmasked when they are singing. True Concord has kept its choristers in a proverbial bubble since they arrived in Tucson Oct. 9. The choir members have been isolated from the general public throughout the season, which concludes this weekend. (The choir also performed two holiday concerts that will be streamed in December.)

• True Concord Voices & Orchestra, “Mother Earth,” 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, and
  • 2 and 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, at Dove of Peace Lutheran Church, 665 W. Rollercoaster Road.

  The concert: The program explores music of nature from around the globe, including Eric Whitacre’s “Little Birds,” Hyo-Won Woo’s traditional arrangement of “Arirang,” Brahms’s “Waldesnacht,” Sid Robinovitch’s “Noche de Lluvia” and a pair of running river odes: James Erb’s arrangement of “Shenandoah” and Carly Simon’s version of “Let the River Run.”

  Tickets: Start at $35 through trueconcord.secure.force.com/ticket

  Reminder: The audience will be limited to 50 and everyone will be required to wear face masks.

  • Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, “Uplifting Music for Strings,” 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance Catalyst space in the Tucson Mall, 4500 N. Oracle Road.

  The concert: Nineteen string players performing works that Music Director Linus Lerner said will lift the spirits of the orchestra and audience in these challenging pandemic times. The program includes Russian composer Anton Arensky’s “Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky,” the ethereal fourth movement of Mahler’s behemoth Symphony No. 5, Benjamin Britten’s playful “Simple Symphony,” Max Reger’s expressive and atmospheric “Lyric Andante,” Ukrainian composer Theodore Akimenko’s Nocturne in D major and Gustav Holst’s “St. Paul’s Suite,” which he composed for the St. Paul’s Girls School orchestra in London in 1913, a year before he finished his signature masterpiece “The Planets.”

  Tickets: $30 in advance only through sasomusic.org; the concert also will be livestreamed through saaca.org

  Reminder: The audience will be limited to 40 and everyone will be required to wear a mask throughout the 80-minute performance.

  During these performances, the players will wear face coverings and will be spread out to achieve social distancing. Each player will have a separate music stand, rather than sitting two to a stand as is customary for string players in orchestras.