M E D I A  A D V I S O R Y

February 11, 2016 – Richmond, Virginia Join the Richmond Symphony and Music Director Steven Smith on Sunday, February 21 at 3pm for Beethoven: Symphony No. 1. This concert is part of the Metro Collection Series and will be held in the Blackwell Auditorium on the beautiful campus of Randolph-Macon College. The performance includes selections from Stravinsky, Strauss and Beethoven and features Richmond Symphony principal oboist, Gustav Highstein.

In describing the Strauss Concerto, Highstein says:

“I’ve been studying the Concerto since I was 16 years old. It’s one of the few masterpieces in the oboe solo repertoire – and perhaps the hardest, due to the tremendous challenges of endurance it presents. The oboe plays on and on without pause, but the music demands that nothing sound labored or strained. It’s a piece full of rewards. The apparently simple material is woven by such a master weaver that secrets abound. Strauss treats his materials so gently, and fashions it all into such smoothly appealing fabric, that one can listen without noticing a thing other than the simple pleasure of listening.”
A FREE pre-concert talk will be held from 2 – 2:30pm in the Dollar Tree Community Room on the second floor of Brock Commons.
Ticket prices are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, $10 for children, and $5 at the door for college students and faculty with ID.

The concert is sponsored by Raymond James.

Steven Smith bio
Gustav Highstein bio

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About the Richmond Symphony

Founded in 1957, the Richmond Symphony is the largest performing arts organization in Central Virginia. The organization includes an orchestra of more than 70 professional musicians, the 150-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus and more than 260 students in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra programs. Each season, more than 200,000 members of the community enjoy concerts, and radio broadcasts. The Symphony also provides educational outreach programs to over 50,000 students and teachers each year. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.