The Well-Tempered Wizard
The Blue Ridge Orchestra leads off its 2023-2024 season with The Well-Tempered Wizard, a Halloween-themed concert presented at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 28th in Charles Beall Auditorium, Haywood Community College, and on Sunday, October 29th in Lipinsky Auditorium, UNC Asheville. Audience members were encouraged to don costumes and add to the fun of these family-friendly performances.
From the opening chords of Bach’s celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D Minor to the closing strains from the score of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Music Director Milton Crotts has designed a program that evokes the spirit of Halloween. Works from the classical music world—Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture, Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, and Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King—were complemented with selections from Broadway’s Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera.
The Orchestra was delighted to extend its collaboration with Haywood Community College, where one of our October and December programs will be performed this season, with proceeds benefitting HCC students. Community outreach—sharing fine music with all of Western North Carolina—is central to the ensemble’s mission. The Well-Tempered Wizard is sure to put the ghosts and goblins of both Buncombe and Haywood counties in the mood for a happy musical Halloween.
Milton Crotts, conductor
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) arr. Victor Lopez
“In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt Suite No.1, op. 46, Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Phantom of the Opera for Strings and Piano, Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948) arr. Lee Che-yi
The Phantom of the Opera • Think of Me • Angel of Music
The Music of the Night • Masquerade • All I Ask of You
Paula Akbar, violin • Tinder Burris, violoncello
Danse Macabre, op. 40 , Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Paula Akbar, violin
INTERMISSION
Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Highlights from Wicked, Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948) arr. Ted Ricketts
No One Mourns the Wicked • The Wizard and I
Dancing Through Life • Popular • Defying Gravity
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Suite for Orchestra, John Williams (b. 1932)
I. Hedwig’s Theme
II. The Sorcerer’s Stone
III. Nimbus 2000
IV. Harry’s Wondrous World
Concert Photo Credit: Kathy Kmonicek