With Guest Gary Moody, Bassoon

The Concert Orchestra performs The Czech Connection, conducted by Leslie Stewart. The program opens with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s first symphony, written when he was only eight years old. Although he travelled as a child prodigy, Mozart didn’t go to Prague until a few years before his untimely death in 1791. His music was popular with the Bohemians, and he was treated like a superstar during his 1787 visit, which he described as “one of the happiest days of my life.” Carl Stamitz, whose Concerto in F major for Bassoon and Orchestra features CSU faculty artist Gary Moody, was a German composer of Czech ancestry whose music was heavily influenced by both Mozart and Haydn. The orchestra also performs Suite for Strings, an early work by Leos Janacek, considered one of the most important Czech composers.

The Concert Band performs a concert titled Summer of Love, inspired by the 50th anniversary of that season five decades ago. The concert features music reflective of the changes our world experienced during the 1960s.