All-American program, featuring works by Ives, Walker, and Schickele, marks move of Chamber Series to the Schuster Center

On Wednesday evening, October 3 at 6:30 pm and again on Thursday morning, October 4 at 10:00 am, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director Neal Gittleman will lead the DPO Chamber Orchestra in Modern and More, a concert of chamber works by American composers.

The program, the first in the DPO’s 2007-2008 Demirjian Chamber Exploration Series, starts with Charles Ives’s The Unanswered Question, music marked by a deep philosophical undercurrent, followed by the second half of Ives’s unique diptych Central Park in the Dark, which features a collage of popular and pop-influenced tunes. African American composer George Walker’s Lyric for Strings is next, followed by Concerto for Chamber Orchestra written by Peter Schickele, the man who discovered P.D.Q. Bach.

These two concerts mark the move of DPO Chamber Music performances from the Victoria Theatre venue to the Schuster Center’s Mead Theatre, to take advantage of the superb acoustics. This program is the third of six programs presented as part of the NCR Made in America Festival, sponsored by NCR and the National Endowment for the Arts. All of the programs in the Festival feature the work of American composers and American guest artists. Tickets $10-$24

Free pre-concert refreshments include pizza appetizers provided by sponsor Boston’s Bistro at the Gypsy for the Wednesday, 6:30 pm performance and complimentary coffee and donuts provided by sponsors Boston Stoker and Mercy Siena Retirement Community for the Thursday, 10 am performance.

Dr. Charles and Patricia Demirjian are the Chamber Series sponsors.