 Hello everyone, I am James Milan and welcome to this special presentation. I am speaking to Orlando Sela, who is a floutist of note, but we don't even talk about that because he spends so much time as an orchestra conductor in and around Arlington and the surrounding areas, including in fact, an orchestra that Orlando put together in based out of low mass of professional musicians from the area, and who will be performing here in Arlington at Town Hall on Friday, October 22nd. That's right. That's right. Friday at October 22nd at 6pm, you have an opportunity to come to Town Hall and see live music in the newly renovated wonderful auditorium at Town Hall. And so we're here with Orlando to talk about the program, talk about how it came together, what we can expect, and why you should be heading to Town Hall on that night. But first of all, as I was saying before we began the recording, it's been too long since I got to speak to you and it's a pleasure to see you. Lovely seeing you again. Thank you very much. Yeah, so here we are. I think the beginning of the concert is 730, but Oh, is that right? I'm sorry. You know, I was going from the ACMI calendar, excuse me, and it and we of course, because we're going to record it, we have to be there way early. Oh, I got it. Yes. I was misled in that way. So thanks for the clarification. Let's say 730 this coming Friday, October 22nd at Town Hall here in Arlington. That's great. So tell us a little bit please Orlando about just how how has this come together, especially because it is a particularly special moment in terms of returning to live musical performance, something that none of us have gotten to experience just about in very close to two years now. That's right. So I've been very familiar with the menotomy concert series who are hosting this concert. For many, many years I actually performed with them a long, long time ago with a flute ensemble I used to conduct out of the Arlington senior center. And I created an orchestra called the Lowell Chamber Orchestra in Lower Massachusetts because there was a desperate need here to have really high quality professional classical music that is orchestra. So that need was very apparent because it had a very good talented flute student that was invited to play with the UMass Lowell Orchestra. She was invited to play a seminal piece for flute, and she had never heard it. So I said that there, I had to fix that classical concerts happen to be very expensive. So my mission was to provide all of these concerts free of charge for everybody to the lower community and we have been now going for three years. And despite the pandemic we continued live so we are really, really happy to be able to join the menotomy concert series once again in what is our second concert of the season and their opening concert. So tell us what's on the program. Thanks again also for clarifying that this is part of the menotomy concert series and they present, you know orchestras and musical ensembles such as your own, and, and others from the area with a real commitment to providing again the community with an opportunity to listen to high, high quality classical music presented live so tell us about this Friday's program. Slowly so I decided to build a program around the, the life of this one particular man called Dimitri Shostakovich and we're going to play one of his pieces, which is actually very autobiographical by his own. Same by his own evolution. So this piece talks a lot about his struggle during his lifetime. And since we have always struggled in one way or another during the pandemic, I thought it would be a good way to end the program with that and that piece is called the chamber symphony number eight. And after that after planning on that piece, which is very powerful, a thought of other pieces that also yield a little bit of a, of a glimpse into the life of a composer through their own music. We're going to start the program with a fantastic piece for strings called the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and the composer is Ralph von Williams. And the reason why I chose this piece is Ralph von Williams loved the music from the two door period in England from the 1500s, 1600s. So he actually takes him that was written by Thomas Tallis and orchestrates it for string orchestra. Actually, it's not one orchestra, it's actually two string orchestras. So it produces this sense of being in a monastery and hearing, chanting and praying, not only for your own chambers but also in some distance place. And in between these two pieces, there is a flute concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is also a very interesting way into seeing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's life, because he was actually a very difficult man to work with. And this is the first concerto and the only flute concerto that he really did write for flute. I mean, he was hired to write three concertos, and he wrote the first one. And he was done. He didn't want to do it anymore. So then for the second concerto, he transcribed one from the oboe. So his patron, the personal commission was already angry. So Mozart wrote two more little pieces and then he decided to take care of it. So it's a little bit more of a comical view into how a genius composer can sometimes be, you know, difficult to get to work with. And who, may I ask, is going to be the featured floutist for that piece? Sure. My wife, Wei Zhao, is also playing in the orchestra and the lower chamber orchestra often. She's going to come outside from the section and she's going to step up in the front and be the featured soloist. Right, that sounds just wonderful. And I have to say that, you know, I've had the, you know, actually the privilege and the pleasure of attending a lot of live classical music concerts over my ever longer life. And I have to say, this unifying theme is one that I hadn't heard before, you know, has never, I've never come across before. And I love that it's just because I think people, we all have a tendency to separate the work from the artist a lot of the time and not realize that sometimes there's really a very strong connection between what the artist is experiencing and what the work reflects. So it's great to know that going in so that people can kind of tune into the music with that in mind. I will be talking more about the pieces as the concert progresses. So I encourage people to come in not only with the idea of listening to music but also to be able to learn a little bit about the pieces before they're presented to them. Yes, and speaking to you out there in the audience. You know, I having both attended to some of Orlando's concerts and also getting to see them on ACMI because they've been featured regularly for a number of years now, thanks to his own production efforts. There's always an educational piece to every concert in which Orlando does present information that really kind of enhances the listening experience and deepens one's understanding of what you are listening to. Sounds like we're going to be able to look forward to more of the same with this new with this new concert. That's correct. So a little bit of learning and a little bit of playing actually lots more playing this time I promise to keep the talking to a little bit not so much like my serious music guessing where I talk too much. I don't know. I've not heard that complaint from I have not felt it myself nor I've heard it from anybody else but fair enough. All right, we are really looking forward to it. In fact, I can say I am personally very much looking forward to being there in the auditorium at town hall this coming Friday for this concert and for future concerts in the ACMI concert series and future, excuse me, future concerts with your various ensembles. So thanks again for taking this time here today. Sorry about this. Thank you, James. Thank you. Thank you, James. Looking forward to seeing everybody on Friday, October 22, 730 p.m. sound 30. That's right. All right, we will see you then. And thanks again. I've been speaking to Orlando seller who will be heading the Lowell on some chamber orchestra that will be playing in the monotony concert series on Friday, October 22. We hope to see him there. Well, we know we'll see him there. We hope to see you there as well. I'm James Milan. Thanks for joining us.