The Firelands Symphony Orchestra’s season finale will be Saturday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Sawmill Creek Convention Center in Huron.

The 2017 Sphinx Competition winner Ifetayo Ali-Landing will be featured on cello in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme.

HURON – The Firelands Symphony Orchestra (FSO) closes its 2022-23 concert season with the concert A Serenade to Music on Saturday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the newly renovated Sawmill Creek Convention Center in Huron. The concert will feature the full orchestra, the chorale, and guest cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing.

“I’m excited to be collaborating again with the FSO Chorale in some of my favorite music for chorus and orchestra. We welcome to our stage Sphinx Competition winner, the gifted cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing to perform Tchaikovsky’s dazzling Rococo Variations,” said Carl Topilow, music director and conductor.

The concert opens with the titled Serenade to Music, composed in 1938 by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The orchestra will be joined by the FSO chorale, directed by Michael Shirtz, to perform lyrics adapted from the discussion about music from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

The orchestra and chorale will also perform “Stomp Your Foot” and “Promise of Living” from Aaron Copland’s opera The Tender Land and “Polovtsian Dances” from Alexander Borodin’s opera Prince Igor.

The concert season theme this year is “Looking to the Future”, and this concert will highlight young cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing, First Place winner of the 2017 Sphinx Competition’s Junior Division, who has since performed with various orchestras throughout the country. Ms. Ali-Landing will be featured in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. This was Tchaikovsky’s first composition for cello and orchestra.

The concert will also showcase the orchestra performing Tragic Overture by Johannes Brahms. Composed in 1880, the piece has a turbulent, tormented character that contrasts against other pieces composed by Brahms during that time.

General admission tickets for this concert are available for $25 at firelandssymphony.com/tickets or by calling the FSO office at 419-621-4800 (Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Student tickets for youth are complementary, as well as for college students with a valid student I.D. at the time of purchase. For these special ticket offers, please call the FSO office or claim at the box office on the day of the event.

The orchestra will be joined by the Firelands Symphony Chorale, under the direction of Michael Shirtz. (Photo by Doug Klein/Firelands Photography)

This concert is made possible with generous funding from: Randolph J. & Estelle M. Dorn Foundation, Mylander Foundation, Sam S. and Rose Stein Foundation, Herman’s Furniture & Design, Sandusky Concert Association, and Ohio Arts Council.

Sawmill Creek Resort is located at 400 Sawmill Creek Drive W in Huron. When entering the site, attendees should follow signage for the conference center parking and entrance. Concessions are available and are cashless.