The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra continues its 2021-2022 season in mid-November with a program featuring two oboe concertos performed by guest soloist Joshua Lauretig, Tchaikovsky’s String Serenade and the premier of Maestro Julien Benichou’s Romance for Strings.
Maestro Julien Benichou
“Our November program highlights music composed to showcase strings and double reeds,” Benichou said. “We are fortunate to have award-winning oboist Joshua Lauretig perform these works with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony’s outstanding violin, viola, cello and double bass players.”
In addition to the String Serenade and Romance for Strings, the concert includes Antonio Vivaldi’s Oboe Concerto in C Major and Alessandro Marcello’s Concerto for Oboe and Strings in D Minor.
Oboist Joshua Lauretig
The program will be performed on Thursday, November 11 at the Easton Church of God in Easton, MD at 7:30 PM; on Saturday, November 13 at Epworth United Methodist Church in Rehoboth Beach at 7:30 PM; and on Sunday, November 14 at Community Church in Ocean Pines, MD at 3 PM.
Individual tickets for the November concert are $45. For additional information or to order tickets, visit www.midatlanticsymphony.org. Tickets also may be ordered by telephone at 888-846-8600, or purchased at the door.
To ensure the safety of its audience members and musicians, the Orchestra requires proof of COVID-19 vaccination for everyone entering venues.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he received the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellowship, Joshua Lauretig was awarded first prize in the International Double Reed Society’s 2014 Young Artist Competition and earned Honorable Mention in the 2019 Gillet-Fox Oboe Competition. He has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, among others, and is the second oboist of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Acclaimed as both a composer and conductor, Julien Benichou is an avid supporter of new music. He has received numerous commissions for theater, film and concert music, most recently from the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra. He has guest-conducted orchestras in the United States and abroad, and is in his 16th season as Mid-Atlantic Symphony music director. He also serves as principal conductor of the Washington Opera Society.
Benichou began his studies in his native France, received a graduate performance diploma from the Peabody Institute, earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University and also pursued graduate studies at Yale University.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major Opus 48 was written in 1880 and was the composer’s only major work for string orchestra. Sketches for both a symphony and a string quartet suggest the unusual origin of this work. Tchaikovsky noted in a letter that he wanted the Serenade to be his “…homage to Mozart….”
Although Alessandro Marcello, who lived from 1673 to 1747, did not write a lot of music, his Oboe Concerto in D Minor Opus 1 was well known in its time. Johann Sebastian Bach transcribed the work for harpsichord in 1715.
Antonio Vivaldi’s Oboe Concerto in C Major was most likely written for the students at La Pieta, a girls’ school at which he became music director in 1716. His contract required writing two concerti a month for the girls’ orchestra; over his lifetime, he would compose more than 500, in addition to dozens of sonatas and operas.
The only professional symphony orchestra serving southern Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council; the Talbot County Arts Council; the Worcester County Arts Council; the Sussex County, DE Council; and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Inc.
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