On March 15, Philharmonia, St. Olaf’s resident ensemble orchestra, performed in a collaboration with the Northfield High School Camerata — Northfield High School’s orchestra — in the Skoglund auditorium.
In celebration of St. Olaf’s sesquicentennial, President Rundell-Singer had the idea to reach out to the community to connect and give the orchestra a sense of place in Northfield.
“To get that connection to the community, playing music is always a great excuse to bring people together,” said Chung Park, Associate Professor of Music and Conductor of the St. Olaf Orchestra and Philharmonia.
Maintaining connections with the community is something the music department wants to continue in the future. “We’re actively engaged in trying to connect with the community not just in Northfield but up in the cities and down in Faribault… we have a lot of community partnerships,” Park said. “The thing we’re doing with the high school orchestra is a beginning, something we hope to continue more often.”
The Northfield High School Camerata, conducted by Thomas O’Keefe, participated in an afternoon rehearsal with Philharmonia. They were joined by Brenda Brenner, a guest clinician from Indiana University and one of the country’s leading string pedagogues, who worked with them and provided instruction.
Saturday’s concert featured three major works, all by American composers.
One piece in particular that resonated with Park was a collaboration between Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels from the opera “Omar.”
The opera is based on the real-life story of a Muslim American slave, Omar Ibn Said, who was a West African scholar captured and brought to the U.S., where he wrote the only known slave narrative in Arabic. “It’s a really cool piece with incredible North African influences… It’s a piece I’m very excited about,” Park said
Park’s excitement for the collaboration reflects his deep appreciation for the students he works with in Philharmonia.
“The thing I love the most [about Philharmonia] is the students,” he said. “They’re amazing. They’re really fun and really smart… and so musical, and they play with so much enthusiasm… It’s a pretty special group of people, which I don’t take for granted. I think there’s some kind of weird magic going on there because these students are just amazing.”
Park and the rest of those involved appreciate support from the St. Olaf student body.
“We love for students to come out and be enthusiastic audience members… if they can come out and do that, that’s all the support we need,” Park said.
Philharmonia is made up of 96 members, ranging from first-year to senior students, and includes a wide variety of majors, with most participants not majoring in music. Park encourages anyone with an interest in music to join the ensemble, which holds auditions every fall.
A stream of the recent concert is available at stolaf.edu/multimedia.
