Music to their ears: UK Symphony Orchestra focuses on Tchaikovsky’s work
John Nardolillo instructs the orchestra as they practice a piece for a future performance on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Hunter Mitchell
December 3, 2014
By Tala Habbel
UK Symphony Orchestra director and maestro John Nardolillo hopes that audience members will “find themselves singing along and being carried away by the beauty of this music” at Thursday’s concert.
Nardolillo will lead the 100-member orchestra in a concert titled “Ballet Music of Tchaikovsky” in honor of the late conductor Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
The event will be held in the Singletary Center’s Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m.
Music from three ballet pieces — the Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker — will be performed.
Nardolillo said that musicians spend their lives playing and listening to Tchaikovsky’s music and that “for many people, it’s some of the first music that [they’ll] fall in love with.”
“Sometimes as performers we don’t always get to play songs people know, but these are well-known songs,” said orchestra member and mathematical economics junior Andrew Cech. “I’m hoping that the audience really enjoys them and sings along.”
The audience should expect selections from three great ballets, Nardilillo said, and music that exhibits unique melodies, string sounds, blazing brass and percussion.
“I really want [the audience] to feel the intent of Tchaikovsky when he was writing the piece,” said orchestra member and biosystems engineering senior Chris Mills. “… I’m looking forward to the cello solos in the Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty … I like the reaction we get from the kids.”
Nardolillo, a violinist, chose the music and arranged the stage layout for the show.
“What I like about being a conductor is that you are in the position to facilitate great music-making by the members of the orchestra,” Nardolillo said. “The art of the conductor is to allow the musicians to play together and make music together, and then be in the position to share that with the audience.”
According to Nardolillo, Tchaikovsky is considered to be one of the greatest Russian composers of his time.
The famous conductor lived in St. Petersburg in the 19th century and taught at the Moscow Conservatory where he made a living writing and conducting music.
Tchaikovsky visited the U.S. in the 19th century and led the very first concert during opening night at Carnegie Hall.
The Nutcracker is one of the most popular holiday ballets around the world, and it was also the last ballet created by Tchaikovsky.
“Any time there is a concert where the people in the orchestra are moved and changed and become different people, and when the audiences (is) moved, that’s a great feeling, that’s a great accomplishment,” Nardolillo said. “And that can happen at a school concert, at Carnegie Hall — it can happen anywhere with any kind of orchestra.”
