Feb. 14, 2018
CWU Symphony Orchestra Honored with Singular Kennedy Center Invite
The Central Washington University Symphony Orchestra is the only collegiate university group invited to be a featured performer at the Capital Orchestra Festival in Washington, DC.
The February 19 performance will take place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
This will be the group's first trip to Washington DC, as well as its first tour to the East Coast.
"We are so honored to be invited to the Capital Orchestra Festival," said Nikolas Caoile, CWU director of Orchestras, and interim chair of the music department. "Our students have earned this distinction through their hard work, talent, and sheer musicianship. I am very proud to lead them."
The program will include Johannes Brahms' Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, and Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
The 73-member CWU Symphony Orchestra is recognized as the preeminent collegiate orchestra program in the Northwest, performing as many as ten concerts per year including choral/orchestral collaborations, a concerto competition, Halloween concert, opera productions and guest artist concerts.
To view the symphony in action, watch this YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5p_ddeuAxo
The ensemble consistently receives invitations to perform at State Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) and Northwest Regional NAfME conferences. Recent performances include Ravel's La Valse as part of an invited performance for the Washington Music Educators Association State Conference, and fully staged performances of Mozart's The Magic Flute at Icicle Creek's Snowy Owl Theater and Strauss' Die Fledermaus at the Capitol Theater in Yakima. In May, they will present Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem at Seattle's Benaroya Hall.
In addition, CWU has partnered with KCTS 9 and KYVE 47 to provide televised programming, via CWU On Stage, of the Symphony Orchestra concerts to the stations' 2.5 million viewers. The show is hosted by Caoile.
The JFK Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a world-renowned arts complex on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It opened in 1971 as a living memorial to the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, it was built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain and is administered by a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution. It is often referred to as the "National Center for the Performing Arts," serving as the home of the National Symphony, Washington Ballet, Washington National Opera, and the Washington Performing Arts Society. Thousands of art performances are given annually on the various stages and theaters that exist within the structure.
Media Contact: Valerie Chapman-Stockwell, Public Affairs, 509-963-1518, valeriec@cwu.edu