For 46 years, the Overland Park Orchestra has been striking a chord in Johnson County. The symphonic group will play its last concert of the season May 5.
Featured in the concert is a new work, “Cassini Overture,” by Timothy Rolls, an assistant professor of music at Fort Hays State University. It will have its world premiere the day before in Hays, but the Overland Park Orchestra got the chance to give it a Kansas City area premiere because conductor Shah Sadikov commissioned it for the Hays Symphony Orchestra.
“This is a great opportunity for the orchestra. It’s always super exciting to present a new piece. It’s bringing it to life — nobody’s heard it before,” Sadikov said. “It’s based on the chemical elements of the meteor Cassini. I think the composer did a fantastic job at devising a very interesting sound journey.”
Also on the bill is Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36.”
The performers are a mix of talented amateurs and retired professionals. Sitting at any given music stand could be a nurse, a college professor or a local business owner.
(Read more: Joco 913 News)