The Civic Orchestra of Tucson closes out its 2023-24 season this weekend with two performances of “Headlines and Heroes,” with music drawn from Hollywood and Broadway.
Green Valley’s Valley Presbyterian Church at 2800 S. Camino del Sol, with its wall of windows looking out at the area’s stunning mountain ranges, gets the first performance at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 4. The concert will feature John Powell’s “How to Train Your Dragon” along with a tribute to Henry Mancini and music from the animated musical “Frozen.”
It’s also the concert that will feature performances by the 2024 Young Artists’ Competition winners violinist Riley Blute, who will play the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor; and a piano trio featuring pianist Hannah Lui, violinist Joshua Thai and cellist Mei-Mei Turner, winners of the orchestra’s ensemble division. The trio will perform the first movement of Smetana’s G-minor Piano Trio.
The orchestra also will perform John Williams’s “Harry Potter” Symphonic Suite and the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
Around 7 p.m. Sunday, May 5, just as the sun exhales one last time, the orchestra will take the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center stage at Reid Park, 900 S. Randolph Way, to repeat the performance with a few exceptions: instead of the young soloists, Tucson’s audience will hear highlights from Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” and Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt’s “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Admission to both concerts is free, although donations are accepted. Details at cotmusic.org.
Civic Orchestra of Tucson member Bob Atwell composed a new work in memory of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
