Wide Variety, Short Duration:

DCO Concert December 2

DANBURY — Danbury Community Orchestra will perform under the direction of Stephen Michael Smith, music director and conductor, on Sunday, December 2, at 3 pm, in Ives Concert Hall, 181 White Street. The concert hall is located in White Hall on the midtown campus of Western Connecticut State University.

Danbury Community Orchestra is an orchestra of 85 musicians, half of whom are teenagers and the others adults, from greater Danbury including exceptional high school, college and adult musicians from more than 15 communities. This orchestra is one of only a few in the country that encourages adults and teenagers to play side by side.

The program will include the exciting Night on Bare Mountain by Mussorgsky. Extra brass players will join the orchestra for the rousing final movement of The Pines of Rome by Respighi and the brass section will again be featured in a Canzon written by 16th Century composer Gabrielli during the Golden Age of Brass.

The concert will also include the Egmont Overture by Beethoven, and a symphony for strings by Boyce.  The performance will conclude with a surprise holiday encore.

Because of the wide variety of music and the short length of the program, this concert is suitable for families and young children .

Stephen Michael Smith has been music director and conductor of Danbury Community Orchestra since 2004. He resides in New York City and in New Fairfield.

He is the director of the Stephen Smith Singers of New York City, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, the founder and conductor laureate of Sing Out! Brooklyn, and has been guest conductor of numerous orchestras throughout Europe and the United States.

Admission is free. Call Danbury Music Centre, 748-1716, for additional information about attending this concert or auditioning for a seat in the orchestra.