Juno Orchestra: Challenge

Under the direction of Zon Eastes, the Juno Orchestra will perform George Frideric Handel’s Concerto Grosso in B flat Major, Op. 6, No. 7; Paul Hindemith’s Five Pieces, Op 44, No. 4; Erik Nielsen’s Movement 3 from Glimpses of Azure; Jean Perrault’s Exodus; and George Templeton Strong’s Choral on a Theme by Leo Hassler (1601).

Also featured will be the premiere of Robert Merfeld’s Bridget Anne Hart: An Irish Legacy. The piece was inspired by memories of departing the Irish homeland and settling in a new land, namely Vermont. The piece is set for narrator, winds, and strings, and presents several tunes any audience member will recognize.

Exodus is a one-movement work, expanding in size from a string quartet written in 2021. The piece is dedicated to anyone forced from their homeland. Unusual and appealing, Eastes explains that this piece seemed a perfect emotional fit with Merfeld’s.

Eastes explained that while the theme of “challenge” initially focused on asking composers to create new pieces for the concert, an alternate take on the idea of challenge began to emerge. “In these unsettling times — in our own country and abroad — the challenge of displacement, departure, and resettlement strikes a deep chord.”

He points to a third piece on the program that complements this theme: Strong’s Choral on a Theme by Leo Hassler. This eight-minute chorale is a study on a tune by Leo Hassler from 1601 that audiences will recognize as ‘O Sacred Head Now Wounded,’ used so effectively by Johann Sebastian Bach in his two remarkable Passions as well as in several cantatas.

“While the pieces on the remainder of the program may not speak to ‘challenge’ as directly as the first three, but separately and together, they offer explorations of question, complexity, and hope.”

This concert is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Farina.