The Independence Sinfonia, led by Maestro Gerome Rosen, will present “Over Hill, Over Dale” at Medford Leas on Sunday afternoon, May 17, starting at 2:30 p.m. The pastoral-themed concert will feature Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream by Felix Mendelssohn and Symphony Number six in F major by Ludwig Von Beethoven, known as The Pastoral. The concert will be held in the Medford Campus Theater and admission is $10 per person at the door. Reservations are not required.
The Independence Sinfonia Orchestra, now in its eighteenth year, draws its members for throughout the Philadelphia and South Jersey area. The forty-piece orchestra is comprised of talented professional musicians who, united in their love for music, volunteer their services to bring the enjoyment of music to communities throughout the area. This concert marks the eighth year the Sinfonia will perform in Medford.
Jerome Rosen, the Sinfonia’s music director and conductor, led the Cleveland Repertoire Orchestra at Boston University and served as music director of the Oak Park Symphony in Detroit. A violinist as well as keyboardist, Rosen served as associate concert master of the Detroit Symphony and the Boston Symphony, as well as concert master of the Boston Pops. A graduate of the Curtis Institute with an Artist’s Diploma in violin, Rosen also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He studied conducting under George Szell and James Levine.
The Overture in E major, Op. 21, was written by Mendelssohn at 17 years and six months old was finished on 6 August 1826. Called “the greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen in music,” it was written as a concert overture, not associated with any performance of the play and features the world-famous Wedding March.
Beethoven was a lover of nature who spent a great deal of his time on walks in the country. He frequently left Vienna to work in rural locations. His beloved Pastoral Symphony, №6 in F major, Op. 68, was competed in 1808.
