Bowdoin's and Bates' orchestras will join forces in two performances of classical music this weekend. The combined orchestra will perform both at Bates' Olin Arts Center and Bowdoin's Studzinski Recital Hall.
The collaboration is led by directors Hiroya Miura and the Department of Music's Director of Chamber Ensembles Roland Vazquez.
After receiving rave reviews and enjoying great success over last year's performance, the orchestras decided to collaborate for the second year in a row.
This year, Delmar Small, concert, budget and equipment manager of the Department of Music, will produce the event.
Small highlighted the benefits of such a collaboration.
"Both colleges are just a little too small to fill out a full orchestra on their own, so by combining, we have a nice big string section and we can fill in the winds," he said.
Small went on to describe how the combined orchestras complement each other and can achieve a more complete musical experience.
"We have a mass of strings, pairs of instruments, two flutes, oboes, trumpets, clarinets, bassoons and other wind instruments.
These will sound great in the really nice facilities we are performing in," he said.
The two orchestras have been rehearsing for several months.
Although rehearsals have typically been held at Bowdoin, the College's orchestra members have also made regular trips to Bates to get used to playing in their spaces as well.
Multiple students remarked on how lucky they feel to be able to perform in both the Bates' Olin Arts Center and Bowdoin's Studzinski Recital Hall.
The Olin Arts Center features a 300-seat concert hall, and Studzinski Recital Hall houses the 280-seat Kanbar Auditorium.
One of the most exciting new developments in this year's performance is that the orchestra will be joined by renowned pianist Frank Glazer, who will play a Chopin piano concerto.
Glazer has been the artist-in-residence at Bates for 25 years.
Rachel Furo Lopkin '13 said, "Frank Glazer is the soloist, he's absolutely incredible and it's really exciting to be able to play with such a talented pianist!"
The 95-year-old Glazer performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Sergei Koussevitzky in 1939. Glazer started his own television show, Playhouse 15, in Milwaukee, in addition to founding the Saco River Festival to make classical piano music available to the Maine public.
Lopkin, who is the first flutist in the orchestra, expressed her excitement for the event.
"We are playing Schumann's 'Symphony No 1,' or 'Spring' and Beethoven's 'Leonore Overture No. 3,' which are both very exciting and powerful pieces," she said. "I think the audience will really enjoy them."
The performances will take place tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at Bates College in the Olin Arts Center and on Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Studzinski Recital Hall.
The concert is open to the public free of charge.
No tickets or reservations are necessary.