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Ars Viva presents Vaughan Williams, Tchaikovsky and Bizet's Carmen

The Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra, recent winner of the 2013 Skokie Fine

Arts Award for Excellence, continues
its 19th season at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in
Skokie on February 9th at 3:00 p.m.  Music

Director Alan Heatherington, recipient of Chicago Classical Review’s 2013 Distinguished Achievement Award is known
for his creative programming and entertaining comments to the audience, illuminating the music.  He will lead one of Chicago’s
finest professional orchestras in a program featuring the string orchestra
music of Vaughan Williams, Tchaikovsky and Bizet.

The concert
will feature Ars Viva’s principal oboe, Stephen Colburn, in Vaughan Williams’
rapturously beautiful concerto for oboe and orchestra.  Also on the program is Tchaikovsky’ stunning Serenade for Strings, arguably the most
important and best known work for string orchestra.  Completing the program is a riveting
arrangement of Bizet’s Carmen Suite
by the gifted Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin. The Ars Viva strings in their
performance last March were named #4 out of the top 10 performances in Chicago
for 2013 by Lawrence Johnson of Chicago Classical Review. Heatherington responded,
“It is a thrill and a joy to conduct the
musicians of Ars Viva. The music-making is at the very highest level and audiences are swept away by the beauty and virtuosity of their playing.”

Founded
in 1995 by Music Director Alan Heatherington, the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra
is composed of the finest professional musicians in the Chicago metropolitan
area, including many members of the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Thoughtful, challenging programming

demonstrates a commitment to excellence and artistic vitality that sets Ars

Viva apart from other orchestras.  With
diligent attention to detail and a profound knowledge of style and musical
history, Maestro Heatherington commands a wide variety of repertoire ranging
from Baroque to contemporary music.  It
is the goal of Ars Viva not only to present an interesting variety of music at
the highest level of performance quality, but to help audiences engage with the
music in new ways.

The popular Music for Life program accompanies each
of Ars Viva’s concerts.  The program
concept is simple:  parents (or grandparents) bring their children to the concerts and sit together in the audience to hear the orchestra. After the first piece on the program, children ages 4 to 7 leave the auditorium with professional educators from the Music Institute of Chicago to go to their classroom right in the building.  At intermission, the older children (8 to 11) go to their classroom. The children learn more about the music they have heard, the composer or the historical and cultural setting.   Instructors use visual arts, drama, storytelling, and movement to stimulate the children’s imagination and
creativity.  With an accompanying adult,
the children are admitted to the concert and Music for Life free of charge. 


This concert will
also feature a special “On Stage” dinner after the performance.  Join Maestro and members of the orchestra on
the stage after the concert for an informal buffet and panel discussion.  Separate reservations are required and
seating is limited.  $75/person.  Call (855) ARS-VIVA, email info@arsviva.org, or go online to www.arsviva.org to reserve your place at the table.
 
Single
tickets are $32–70 with discounts for seniors and youth.  The concert and the Music for Life program begin at 3:00
p.m. on Sunday, February 9, 2014 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.  Ample free parking is available and the building is handicapped accessible.  For
complete information, call 855 ARS-VIVA (277-8482) or purchase tickets at http://www.arsviva.org.

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