Jazz singer Natii Wright, who has performed at the Kennedy Center, will bring the River Concert Series audience songs for a warm night including “The Girl From Ipanema,”and “Summertime.”  The concert starts at 7 pm on Friday, August 24 at SMCM.

Photo Credit:  Chesapeake Orchestra

Leonardtown MD – The River Concert Series will offer its free grand finale for the season on Friday, July 24. The Chesapeake Orchestra will perform on a summer night with a winter themed “Winter is Coming” concert. The orchestra will begin by playing ballet favorites, including Swan Lake and The Nutcracker by the famous Russian composer Tchaikovsky and Symphony Number 2 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Jazz singer Natii Wright, will bring the audience back to Summer alongside the Chesapeake Orchestra, led by music director and conductor, Maestro Jeffrey Silberschlag with songs for a warm night including “The Girl From Ipanema,”and “Summertime.” The gates open at 5 pm with the concert beginning at 7 pm on the Townhouse Green of St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Concert guests are encouraged to bring a picnic or purchase food from various vendors. For more information about the concerts, or to sponsor this local tradition, visit www.chesapeakeorchestra.org or call 301-848-5309.

“The River Concert Series grand finale this year will offer classic winter favorites as a nod to the end of our season.” Silberschlag said. “We are also keeping the summer season in mind with our featured soloist, jazz singer Natii Wright’s performances of songs with a warm summery feeling like Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child.”

The program for this concert begins with Tchaikovsky’s ballet classics, “The Nutcracker,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Swan Lake.” The program will continue with Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2. Natii Wright will sing jazz classics and standards including “God Bless the Child” by Billie Holiday and “The Girl From Ipanema” by Antonio Carlos Jobim. The Chesapeake Orchestra will close out the concert with River Concert Series Finale favorites.

Natii Wright has become legendary for her sultry jazz voice, which will bring summer back into the River Concert Series with warm, smooth songs like “My Funny Valentine” from the musical Babes in Arms. Wright has performed at The Kennedy Center “Black Box” Theatre and the Washington National Theatre and with icons  Lonnie Liston Smith and Stanley Turrentine in the Castle of the Bermuda Dockyards and Ghana, West Africa.

Famous Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, has written symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, chamber music and is highly regarded for the emotions his music embodies. Tchaikovsky’s most well known work includes the 1812 Overture and popular ballets such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Tchaikovsky is known for his wide range of musical style from his grand and commanding symphonies to his delicate ballets. During his lifetime from 1840 to 1893 many Russians disapproved of Tchaikovsky’s work for being too emotional and mixing Western music styles with traditional Russian styles. In the 21st century these elements are now thought of positively as necessary components to Tchaikovsky’s distinctive style.

Jean Sibelius was a Finnish violinist and composer during the late Romantic and early-modern periods who helped Finns develop a national identity with his music. Jean Sibelius composed and conducted in several countries in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany and was named composer of the year in 1914 during the Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut. Jean Sibelius’s Symphony  has hints of Tchaikovsky with its wide range of emotions. Sibelius is known for building his music from fragmented pieces to a grand cohesive statement.

Saturday Series at Woodlawn

The Chesapeake Orchestra Fellows will partner with Slack Wines for a concert titled “The Gypsy in Me” on Saturday, July 25 from 7 to 9 p.m. for their last concert in the July Classical and Jazz Series of the Saturday Series at Woodlawn. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased online or at the River Series tent during the Friday concert. Seafood rolls, hotdogs, chips and other food as well as wine, beer, soda and spirits will be available for purchase on site. The concert will be held at the Woodlawn Inn & Estate at 16040 Woodlawn Drive, Ridge. For more information and tickets visit http://www.slackwine.com or call Woodlawn Inn & Estate at 301-872-0555.

“This is an intimate concert series that features bright new talents with established artists in an exclusive setting that goes down as easily as the wine,” said Silberschlag of the Saturday Series at Woodlawn.

The Chesapeake Orchestra Fellows are made up of young professional musicians, selected through National auditions. Members of the 2015 Chesapeake Orchestra Fellows are violinists Anastasia Dolak from The Juilliard School, Mariya Polishchuck from the Manhattan School of Music, Michael Eby from the the Manhattan School of Music, Victoria Wolf Lewis, from the Cleveland Institute of Music; violists Katherine Lawhead from San Francisco Conservatory, Lydia Angel from the Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra, Rose Mary Llewellyn from the Maryland Youth Symphony; cellists Olena Dolak from the Manhattan School of Music, Amanda Durst from St. Mary’s College of Maryland; contrabassist Milad Daniari from the Manhattan School of Music; oboist Alan Morris from SUNY Stony Brook University School of Music; bassoonIst Joey Lavarias from the Juilliard School; horn player Nathaniel Silberschlag from the Juilliard School, and trumpeter Zachary Silberschlag from the Manhattan School of Music and SUNY Stony Brook.
Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra Auditions

After the River Concert Series and the July Classical and Jazz Series end their seasons, Jeffery Silberschlag, the director and conductor of the Chesapeake Orchestra and the Chesapeake Orchestra Fellows, will turn his attention to the Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra auditions on August 23 and September 6 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information visit http://myso.info/auditions/.

Silberschlag’s broad experience within the musical world brings an understanding of classical and modern musical landscape. Silberschlag’s accomplishments include guest conducting the London Symphony, London Philharmonic. St. Petersburg Soloists, Orchestra Filharmonici di Torino, Symphony Orchestra of Rumania, Bulgarian Philharmonic, La Scala Virtuosi, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Academy Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated with soloists including pianists Brian Ganz, Bruno Canino,; violinists Anne Akiko Meyers, Hillary Hahn, Lara St. John; trumpeters Terence Blanchard, John Wallace; vocal artists Jane Monheit, Melissa Errico, Judy Blazer, Vonda Shepard, Maria Kanyova, Susan Narucki, Ethel Ennis, and Hillary Kole. He has presented master classes at numerous universities around the world and was named Music Director of the Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore in June  2014.

The Chesapeake Orchestra has brought their first-class professional music to over 400,000 people since its creation by Silberschlag in 1994 and has won the Governor’s Tourism Impact Award along with many other accolades.

The aim of The River Concert Series is to provide a family friendly evening of inspiring music through the passion and expertise of the Chesapeake Orchestra and their famous guest musicians in a way that brings world-renowned music to thousands of people in Southern Maryland through July 24th.

Sponsors of this concert are Toyota of Southern Maryland and Phocus Video. Corporate sponsors of the 2015 series include American Federation of Musicians Music Performance Trust Fun, Arts Alliance of St. Mary’s College Maryland, BAE Systems, Chesapeake Orchestra Club Members, Maryland State Arts Council, River Concert Series Audience, St. Mary’s Arts Council, Slack Winery, Southern Maryland Publishing, Wyle, and Yamaha Pianos.

For more information about the concerts, or to be a sponsor of this unique Southern Maryland tradition, go to www.chesapeakeorchestra.org or call 301-848-5309.  You may also visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ChesapeakeOrchestra