Packed KSO program schedule offers variety of performances for local audiences

Packed schedule for KSO

Photo: Allen Douglas / KSO

The Kamloops Symphony Orchestra is offering four distinct programs over February.

The Kamloops Symphony Orchestra is inviting local audiences to a veritable smorgasbord of performances over the coming weeks.

The orchestra is opening February with Bach, Brass and Uncommon Times on Saturday, Feb. 7, which features works from Bach, Brahms, Valerie Coleman and Bernstein’s West Side Story. KSO said its brass and percussion sections “become storytellers of structure, power and theatrical colour.”

A kids concert will be held the following afternoon, titled Toot, Tap, Boom!, at 2 p.m. Audiences are invited an hour early for the KSO Music School Overture in the Sagebrush Theatre lobby, which will include a trombone ensemble and hands-on activities.

Up next is Ebony Roots by performing arts charity Sound the Alarm Music/Theatre, which will trace more than 300 years of black musical innovation during two performances on Feb. 21 and 22. The symphony orchestra said that includes prison work songs and spirituals, blues, Motown, soul and R&B.

The last concert of the month is titled Lift Every Voice! and will include approximately 100 performers from the KSO Chorus, the music school’s Children and Youth Choruses and singers from across the region.

“February’s program reflects where we believe orchestral organizations must go: deeper into community, broader in musical language and more responsive to the world around us,” said KSO executive director Christopher Young.

“Whether it’s Bach’s structural brilliance, the evolution of black musical legacies, or the voices of our own neighbours and students, each performance speaks to the resilience and relevance of music in a time of rapid change.”

Tickets and further information on each performance is available online.