VSO brings summer ‘Celebrate!’ tour to Stowe on Sunday

July 6, 2022  |  By Waterbury Roundabout 

On its "Celebrate!" summer tour, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra performs at Shelburne Museum last week, conducted by its fourth music director candidate, Julian Pellicano. Photo by Lee Krohn

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Festival Tour “Celebrate!” concludes this Sunday, July 10, with a performance at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. 

This is the final of six stops on the tour led by Canadian Conductor Julian Pellicano. The program of American music is apropos given the timing around the Independence Day holiday.  

“It’s designed for everyone to come, families, people who are new to orchestra music, people who have been coming to the Vermont Symphony for years and years — it casts a very wide net,” Pellicano told the Times Argus in a recent interview from his home in Winnipeg.

The series also is also part of his audition for the position of VSO music director, the fourth of seven finalists, after Jaime Laredo retired last season after 20 years in the position. Currently the principal conductor of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and associate conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Pellicano has assembled a diverse program to celebrate the national holiday. An American-Canadian dual citizen, Pellicano is the fourth candidate to audition for the job.

“It was important for me to program a few classic masterful American composers,” Pellicano said. On the bill are John Williams’ “Liberty Fanfare” and the Overture to “West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein.

“Aaron Copland is represented with two parts of ‘Rodeo,’ ‘Buckaroo Holiday’ and ‘Corral Nocturne,’ a ballet I recently conducted,” Pellicano said. “Morton Gould is represented. His ‘American Salute’ is a very magical set of variations, with extraordinarily bright instrumentation.”

VSO Principal Trombonist Matt Wright is the featured soloist for the “Celebrate!” concerts. Photo by Lee Krohn

Lesser-known composers on the program include Quinn Mason. The orchestra will perform the first movement of his “Joyful Trilogy” called “Running.” African-American composer Florence Price (1887-1953) is represented by “Nimble Feet” and “Tropical Noon” from her “Dances in the Canebreak,” and Nancy Bloomer Deussen by her “American Hymn.”

The finale is Rossini’s classic “William Tell” Overture.

The Sunday concert at the Trapp meadow is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. with grounds open for picnicking at 5:30 p.m. A festive light show is planned for the conclusion. Rain location is the Stowe High School auditorium. 

Tickets: Adults $30 in advance, $35 at the gate; children (ages  6-17) $5 in advance and at the gate; ages 5 and under are free. A $3 fee is added to the ticket price. More information and ticket purchases are online at vso.org/events.

Times Argus Arts editor Jim Lowe contributed to this report. Lowe’s review of the first concert in the series is online at tinyurl.com/VSOJuly1review