Following a national search for a new Music Director, one of the two finalists for the position will conduct the Orchestra of Northern New York’s fall concert, Inspired. Two performances are planned for Saturday, October 28 at 7:30 pm in Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam, and Sunday, October 29 at 3 pm in First Presbyterian Church, Watertown.
Michael Colburn, from North Hero, VT, designed and named the fall concert, Inspired. What inspires a composer to write a manuscript? Colburn says “All sort of things as our Inspired program will demonstrate. The concert will feature music by composers who found inspiration in nature, exotic cultures, family, friends, and even secret codes!” He notes, “while the sources of inspiration are varied, the results are identical – unforgettable works that have stood the test of time.”
Colburn is the former Director of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band (eighteen years). As leader of its Chamber Orchestra, he primarily conducted performances at the White House, but also at public venues, including performances for Kennedy Center Honors receptions and two Kennedy Center concerts commemorating September 11. He also conducted the Marine Band for President Obama’s two inaugurations and President George W. Bush’s second inauguration. He was the Director of Bands at Butler University and is now the director and Conductor of the Me2 Orchestra in Burlington, VT.
He has a master’s in music from George Mason University, with a concentration in Conducting. His undergraduate career began with two years at the Crane School of Music and finished at Arizona State University
Colburn chose Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, also known as Fingal’s Cave, to open the program. Mendelssohn was inspired by his 1829 trip to Fingal's Cave on the island of Staffa, off Scotland's west coast, known for its puffins and the echoes of the cave. He wrote it to capture the Atlantic swell, the sound of the waves crashing into rocks and lapping against each other.
American composer George Walker’s Lyric for Strings was dedicated to his grandmother, Melvina King, a formerly enslaved woman, who died when he was a student at Curtis Institute of Music in 1946.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol is based on Spanish folk melodies and was first performed in 1887.
Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations is featured in the second half of the concert. In fall 1898, Elgar played a melody one evening that caught his wife’s attention. He improvised variation on it in styles which reflected the character of some of his friends.
For tickets, visit onny.org, email executivedirector@onny.org, or call 315-212-3440.
ONNY is sponsored by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the NYS Legislature.