Maui Chamber Orchestra Opens 2016-17 Season, Oct. 22

Maui Chamber Orchestra Opens its 2016-17 Season.

The Maui Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Robert E. Wills will kick-off their 2016-2017 season on Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. and repeat the concert at 5:30 p.m. in the Historic ʻĪao Theater on North Market Street in Wailuku.

The orchestra will present a varied program of Baroque and Classical music 18th and 19th centuries.

The concert soloist will be Maui’s own Teresa Skinner, who has been on Maui for 30 years.

A native of Southern California, Skinner performed throughout the Greater Los Angeles area and played both viola and violin on motion picture and television soundtracks and commercials in Hollywood studios. Skinner has been a fixture on the Maui musical scene since the days of the Kapalua Classical Music Festival and was a member of both the Honolulu and Maui symphony orchestras, where she also performed as a soloist.

Teresa Skinner. Maui Chamber Orchestra Opens its 2016-17 Season.

She plays with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra and is principal violist for both the Maui Pops as well as the MCO.

Skinner will play the TELEMANN: Concerto for Viola TWV51, G9, G major.

Written between 1716-21, it is the first known concerto for the viola. As such, it was instrumental in playing a role legitimating the viola as a soloist instrument.

“Maui is a world-class destination, so it follows that our, so called ‘local musicians’ would be world-class as well,” said Maestro Wills. “We don’t need to go to Europe or the Mainland to bring in soloists for our audience. We already have great people here. I intend to celebrate these great ‘local’ musicians and highlight them as soloists whenever I can.

“If you listen to a recording of the TELEMANN: Concerto for Viola you won’t hear it with the Baroque embellishments Ms. Skinner brings to the work. I am very excited, and I think you will be too, when you hear this outstanding musician,” Wills said.

In addition to the Telemann, the concert will open with Georg Frederick Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op. 6 no 1 in G major. The first half will conclude with J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G major. After intermission, the orchestra will return to perform Franz Schubert’s Symphony no. 5 in B-flat major.

“I want to welcome our audience back for our third season of great chamber music from the Maui Chamber Orchestra, said MCO President, Walter Bissett. “We are so excited about this season, which will feature, Bach’s Magnificat, sung by the Maui Masterworks Chorale, then we are kicking of the first of our Musicals in Concert series with a bang.”

“We will be performing Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” in its entirety, just like the San Francisco and NY Philharmonic have done. Finally we will conclude our season with the Maui premiere of Mendelssohn’s great oratorio “Elijah” with Mr. Wills handing over the baton Dr. Miguel Felipe of U of H music department while he takes on the role of Elijah,” said Bissett.

Bissett also took the opportunity to encourage supporters to take advantage of the $4 for $1 Deitrich Challenge. Every dollar given to the orchestra, up to $20,000 will yield $4 from the foundation, Bissett explained.  “That is a $100,000 gift. What a remarkable opportunity and a national endorsement of what we are doing,” he said.