Western Courier

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: The Edge

The orchestra focuses on its performance.

Media Credit: Adam Sacasa John Reem plays horn as part of a quartet.

The Western Illinois University Symphony Orchestra performed with the Horn Quartet at the College of Fine Arts and Communication Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. last Friday.

Richard Hughey, Director of Orchestral Activities and newcomer to the Western faculty, conducted the performance. Hughey is in his second semester at Western, and has spent the past 17 years working with music in Germany. Among his many accomplishments abroad, Hughey was the artistic director and conductor of the University Orchestra at the University in Dresden.

He organized a new chamber orchestra, which later developed into the TU-Jammerphilharmonie Dresden. This orchestra was recognized as one of the "musical greats" in the city of Dresden. Hughey also started an opera summer festival in the state of Brandenburg, where he performed compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Francesco Cavalli and Joseph Haydn, among many others.

Songs played in the performance included the overture to "La Gazza Ladra" by Gioacchino Rossini, "Konzertstück" by Robert Schumann and "Symphony No. 5 in D Major, Reformation" by Felix Mendelssohn. Hughey said the song selections were engineered in a way to best benefit the orchestra both educationally and artistically.

"It's a very complicated procedure, and it's something that I've been doing for over 30 years," he said. "Its goal, of course, is to pick pieces the orchestra can learn from as well as have a successful time playing."

The members of the Horn Quartet were 2008 Concerto Winners John Reem, Robert Palmer, Amber Dean and Colin Brien, who came together Fall 2006 and perform occasionally on campus. They joined the orchestra to perform with French horns in the Schumann piece. Aside from playing in the Symphony Orchestra, the quartet also performs with the Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

For anyone looking to join the Symphony Orchestra, all one needs to do is stay on the lookout for audition tryouts early every semester. Members rehearse three times a week and perform about three concerts a year, according to Hughey.

For those who attended the concert, much enjoyment and applause radiated from the crowd that nearly filled the seats in COFAC.

"Even though the seats were pretty uncomfortable, I thought it was an excellent performance," said junior secondary education in biology major Alex Linville. "I liked the harmony of all the instruments. I especially liked the French horns."

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