Bob Jones University’s String Orchestra will perform a mix of familiar ballet music from the 19th and 20th centuries in the concert “At the Ballet,” Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Stratton Hall.
Under the direction of Dr. Yuriy Leonovich, a faculty member in BJU’s Division of Music, the orchestra will play pieces from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and from Beethoven’s only opera, The Creatures of Prometheus, as well as Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown” from Rodeo. The concert’s music will be very familiar to the audience, Leonovich said, because of its use in movies and cartoons.
Both Leonovich and his wife, Kristin, also a faculty member in BJU’s Division of Music, will be performing solos. Mrs. Leonovich will perform a violin solo during the violin adagio in Swan Lake, and Dr. Leonovich will have a cello solo during the Beethoven piece.
Felicity Bell, a junior orchestral instrument performance major, and Emily Sitton, a junior church music major, two members of the orchestra, said they are excited to hear the solos performed by Dr. and Mrs. Leonovich.
“They’re incredible,” Bell said.
Both Bell and Sitton have already played in numerous BJU String Orchestra concerts, and each has different reasons for being excited about this particular concert. Bell, a harpist, is looking forward to performing a solo in the Beethoven piece, which is Beethoven’s only orchestral piece to feature a harp.
Sitton, a violinist, said that each concert she has performed with the String Orchestra has been progressively more enjoyable. She is looking forward to this particular concert because of how the music reminds her of her home in Georgia.
“[The music] really takes me back to my roots,” Sitton said.
