P.O. Box 8507Warren, OH 44484-8507

PRESS RELEASEFOR MORE INFORMATION:

FOR IMMEDIATE USELeanna Dunaway

April 2, 2016Phone: 330-399-3606 Email:

Swing Into Spring!at Next WPO Concert

The Warren Philharmonic Orchestra’s spring concert -Swing Into Spring! - features Mighty Casey American rhythms, Ravel's Bolero, and Beethoven's most exuberant symphony.The concert begins at 3 p.m. on April 17, 2016, at Christ Episcopal Church, 2627 Atlantic Street, NE, Warren.The orchestra will performSymphony No. 8 in F majorby Ludwig van Beethoven; Casey at the Batby Ernest Lawrence Thayer, with Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel, narrator; Candide OverturebyLeonard Bernstein; and Boleroby Maurice Ravel.

Susan Davenny Wyner, WPO Music Director and Conductor, anticipates the April concert will appeal to several musical tastes. “What excites me about our spring program are its brightness and playfulness as well as rich contrasts of styles, rhythms and sonorities,” Wyner said. “For example, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, his shortest of them all, is exuberant and filled with surprises, contrasts and humor—so much so that his first audiences were startled. It is powerful, yes, and ideas are developed with intense and unrelenting vigor, but even when he does take us into dark or mysterious worlds, he releases us into joy. It is hard not to hear propulsive drive of those final chords as a barrage of exultant shouts,” Wyner explained.

“We celebrate America with two classics: Special guest Jim Tressel will narrate the historic baseball poem Casey at the Batwith the orchestra evoking the drama of the crowd. Bernstein’s overture to Candide comes out of the gate swinging with highly charged high jinks and irrepressible American jazz syncopations of his best “show” music,” Wyner continued. “By contrast, Ravel’s famous Bolero with its sultry Spanish rhythms, starts quietly and only gradually lures the instruments of the orchestra and us all into its building layers of sound— until we all are caught up in its swirling dance.”

Now in its 50th season, the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra is composed of the area’s finest professional musiciansunder the direction of Susan Davenny Wyner. In addition to two concerts for the public, the orchestra performs free school concerts for thousands of area school children. An Art in Music contest is held yearly for Trumbull County students; current winners’ art-work is now on display at OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children's Center for Science & Technology in downtown Youngstown through May. Free violin lessons for selected third through eighth grade Trumbull County students are being provided with the generosity of Trumbull 100 and several individual donors.

Upcoming Golden Anniversary events,which are free and open to the public, will include a film screening ofAugust Rushat the Warren Community Amphitheatre on June 17, in partnership with theFine Arts Council of Trumbull County(FACT), and a Music and Art Hop on June 18, in partnership withTrumbull Art Gallery(TAG). The anniversary celebration will conclude with a Father’s Day Pops Concert by the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra at the historic First Presbyterian Church in downtown Warren on June 19.

Tickets for the April concert can be purchased at the door. Children under the age of 13 are admitted free, with parent or guardian. For more information, contact the Philharmonic office at 330-399-3606 or email . Facebook: Warren Philharmonic Orchestra. Website:

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