Don’t miss the opportunity to hear more world-class music in Downtown Starkville — this time a lunchtime chamber concert! While docked in Columbus for a performance on their 2012 tour, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra will perform a chamber concert at the Central Station Grill at 12:00 p.m. on June 21 for the Starkville community.
The American Wind Symphony Orchestra (AWSO) is an American musical ensemble comprising many of the wind instruments found in a symphony orchestra, which is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music, and which is known for having commissioned over 400 new works. Based in Mars, Pennsylvania (just north of Pittsburgh), the AWSO was founded and directed by the American conductor (and former trumpeter) Robert Austin Boudreau.
The group, whose membership changes from year to year, typically comprises young professional musicians. The group performs annually during the summer months on a floating arts center designed by the American architect Louis Kahn. Point Counterpoint II, constructed in 1976, is the second boat used by the orchestra, the first having been being a converted coal barge named Point Counterpoint. Aboard Point Counterpoint II, which measures 195 feet long and 38 feet wide, there are also rooms for up to 13 crewmembers, staff, and the Boudreaus to live, an art gallery below deck, and a small theater where most of the patrons’ concerts take place.
Each summer, the group performs on the barge’s stage, with the barge anchored in one of Pittsburgh’s rivers. The group also travels on the barge, around various waterways of the United States (including the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, as well as their tributaries), giving concerts along the way.
The 2012 tour will begin in mid-June as the vessel and its troubadours present to citizens of Columbus, Mississippi on June 23. The orchestra will then entertain thousands as they traverse the Tombigbee Waterway, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and then enter the Ohio and progress upriver to its homeport of Pittsburgh, where a homecoming celebration of the orchestra’s 55th anniversary will include a Cuban music and arts festival, as well as a conductors and composers symposium.
The chamber concert is presented by the Central Station Grill, Starkville Area Arts Council, and the Starkville Main Street Association. There is no admission to the concert, and seating is limited, so concertgoers are encouraged to make reservations with the Central Station Grill. For more information, please contact the Greater Starkville Development Partnership at (662) 323-3322.
