Glacier Symphony and Chorale presents virtual spring concerts

Like many performing arts organizations in this past year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Glacier Symphony and Chorale season of concerts was impacted with a departure from live performances.

The GSC’s Spring Festival will go on this year, but with virtual performances.

“Last year we had to cancel the Spring Festival completely because of the pandemic. We had hoped that by the Spring Festival this year, once again our musicians and singers would have the opportunity to perform for a live audience,” says Music Director and Conductor, John Zoltek. “But nevertheless we are excited to give both our chorale singers and symphony musicians the chance to perform in a concert hall, and our audiences the opportunity to enjoy this variety of great music in the comfort of their own home.”

Live performances are expected to begin this summer.

Besides going digital, the festival will also be configured a bit differently this year. Instead of a combined performance of the symphony and chorale, each entity of GSC will have its own concert taping, presented online in two separate weeks beginning mid-May.

Performing at the First Presbyterian Church in Whitefish will be the Glacier Chorale under the direction of Micah Hunter. The program is called Pillars and Portraits and features three chamber choirs drawn from the membership of the Glacier Chorale.

Audiences will hear choral music ranging from the 16th Century to the present day.

“The chorale will present musical ‘portraits’ of human experience – some intimate and some universal — framed by ‘pillars’ of historically significant texts and composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn,” Hunter said.

The chorale concert can be viewed from May 14 to May 20.

The symphony takes the stage at Flathead High School Auditorium for a performance that can be viewed May 28 to June 3. In a program entitled Carmen, Masques and Malambo, the Glacier Symphony Orchestra will embark on a lush musical journey through time and place with works by Bizet, Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel, including the suite arrangement of the beloved music of Bizet’s opera, Carmen. Grammy-nominated, Seattle-based Uruguayan-American composer Miguel del Águila’s rousing and rhythmic Malambo for bassoon and strings will delight audiences in its West Coast premiere, featuring local favorite, principal bassoonist, Alicia McLean-Brischli, as soloist.

Digital tickets are available now for the Spring Festival by calling the box office at 406-407-7000 and on the website https://glaciersymphony.org/. Tickets may be purchased singly, or as a package with both the chorale and symphony concerts included.