KORI BARKLEY
Staff Writer
Fredonia’s College Symphony Orchestra is gearing up for the orchestral event of the season.
The “irresistible panache” (Chicago Tribune) of virtuoso violinist Rachel Lee Priday will be on display in King Concert Hall. She will collaborate with the CSO for one of the most beloved and technically demanding concertos in violin repertoire, the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35.
Under the direction of Dr. David Rudge, the orchestra will also perform Glinka’s famous “Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila” and Sibelius’ “Symphony No.1 in E minor, Op. 39.”
According to her bio at http://arielartists.com/artists/rachel-lee-priday/, Priday “has appeared as soloist with major international orchestras, including the Chicago, St. Louis, Houston and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Pops and the Berlin Staatskapelle.” She is critically acclaimed for her remarkable talent and praised for her “dazzling, forceful technique,” “rich, mellifluous sound” and “silvery fluidity.”
Her musical endeavors began at the young age of four. What inspires her to continue performing, now and always, is a sense of persistently working toward an ideal version of herself.
“I am continually searching for ways to make performances more beautiful, more varied, more moving and hoping to achieve greater depths in my interpretations,” she said.
To encourage this progress, Priday “seeks contemporary resonances with masterworks of the past,” approaching performances of well-known classical masterpieces with fresh insight, as if they were just written.
She plans to execute Tchaikovsky’s Concerto with such methods on Saturday.
“I’ve played the Tchaikovsky concerto many times, but each time, I hear the music with fresh ears and inevitably find new insights while remembering, again, the feeling I had when I heard it for the first time,” she said. “Hopefully I will bring a performance that really captures the spirit and emotion of the music and create a memorable, shared experience.”
This Saturday will not be the first time Priday and Fredonia musicians have collaborated together.
“She first played with me and the Orchard Park Symphony when she was 12, as a young prodigy,” Dr. Rudge recalled. “ … on a moment’s notice she replaced an indisposed violin professor for nine performances [during] last Fall’s Chamber Orchestra tour of Long Island. I am really happy to be able to bring her to Fredonia and have her interface with all the students in the College Symphony, knowing this will be a stunning performance.”
Tickets are $15 for the general public or $8 for students with ID and are available for purchase online at htttp://www.Fredonia.edu/tickets or in person at the Ticket Office in the Williams Center.