Charleston Chamber Orchestra to Perform “New Horizons” Concert Dec. 10 at West Virginia State

12/4/2019

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Contact: Jack Bailey
(304) 766-4109
Jbaile19@wvstateu.edu
   
INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The Charleston Chamber Orchestra will be performing a “New Horizons” concert Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the John W. Davis Fine Arts Center at West Virginia State University (WVSU).

The orchestra, which is comprised of WVSU students and faculty as well as members of the community, will be performing such works as “Swan Lake Suite,” Coriolan Overture,” “Dances of Transylvania,” “Elegie from String Serenade” and a “Christmas Medley.”

The concert is free and open to the public.

“The concert theme of ‘New Horizons’ is reflective of the transformation that the Charleston Chamber Orchestra will undertake in 2020,” said Dr. Scott Woodard, WVSU associate provost and associate vice president for academic affairs, who serves as conductor of the orchestra. “As of January 1, the orchestra will become the West Virginia State Philharmonic Orchestra. Our vision of creating an environment where professional, student and community music-makers can come together will remain the same, but our mission will expand to take our concerts beyond Charleston to areas that do not regularly have access to live orchestral music.”

During Tuesday’s concert, the WVSU Department of Music will dedicate its new piano lab in memory of Dr. Charlotte Giles, a long-time professor of piano and former chair of the department who passed away earlier this year. Giles served the University in many capacities over her 36-year tenure, including as Director of Cultural Activities and Coordinator of Commencements, convocations and special programs. The lab will be named the Dr. Charlotte E. Giles Piano Lab.

The Charleston Chamber Orchestra formed in 2015 and their first concert was given at WVSU’s Fannin S. Belcher Theater in December 2015. In the past year, the orchestra has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York for the Viennese Master’s Orchestra Invitational and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Capital Orchestra Festival in Washington, D.C.

The orchestra has been invited to perform in Vienna, Austria, at the “Beethoven 250” Festival in the summer of 2020.

For more information, contact Dr. Scott Woodard at (304) 766-3190, (304) 550-7853 or swoodar1@wvstateu.edu.

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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.