Concert will give tribute to former conductor Henry Mollicone

By Marty Cheek

The South Valley Symphony audience will revel in the music that’s “Made in America!” at the 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, concert at Guglielmo Winery, opening the symphony’s 49th season.

“We wanted to do an American concert for a long time and there’s so much great American music,” said Anthony Quartuccio,  SVS’s music director and conductor. “American music has so many different genres. There’s Broadway. There’s symphonic music. There’s music for television. There’s music for movies. There’s all kinds of military band music.”

The concert will offer various genres to appeal to audience’s preferences and their memories, he said.

“We wanted this to be a serious symphonic concert with a pops kind of comfort food for the soul feeling,” he said. “It’s going to be in a beautiful outdoor venue, so we wanted it to be really fun but also have serious music.”

Among the pieces that will be performed by orchestra is “American Salute” by Morton Gould, which contains many familiar American folk songs.

Film music will also be highlighted at the concert including John Williams selections from the “Star Wars” movie “The Force Awakens.” Also planned is the melodic suite from Aaron Copeland’s score for the movie version of “Our Town.”

“It’s a lovely, lovely expression of comfort and community,” Quartuccio said.  “Post-COVID, it’s kind of warm and reassuring that our community is safe. It’s very, very contemplative.”

The orchestra will also perform a salute to TV and cinema by arranger Carl Strommen. It will include classic music including “Singing in the Rain” and “As Time Goes By” as well as the themes of shows such as “M*A*S*H” and “The Flintstones.”

“One of the great things about American music is that there is a lot of great music for television shows,” Quartuccio said. “It won’t just be the headliner tunes. It’ll be a walk down memory lane.”

Also on the list is the rousing suite of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and Alfred Reed’s celebratory “A Festival Prelude.”

The symphony will do a special tribute to its former music director/conductor Henry Mollicone who died earlier this year. He worked with the symphony for nine years before Quartuccio took over. It will perform his piece “Behind Me Dips Eternity.”

“His connection to American music is fierce, with the New York City Opera,” Quartuccio said. “He was a personal musical assistant to Leonard Bernstein for a very long time and a student of Samuel Barber’s.”

The “Made in America!” concert kicks off the 2022-2023 season of four concerts. The “Holiday Magic” concert will be held Dec. 10, possibly returning to the Gavilan College Theater after three years away because of COVID-19. The “NextGen Family Concert” will be held March 11, 2023, also possibly at Gavilan. And the “Mother’s Day — Love is in the Air!” concert will be held May 14, 2023 at Guglielmo Winery.

Quartuccio encourages families and those unfamiliar with symphonic music to attend the “Made in America!” concert because it will serve as a wonderful introduction to this art form.

It’s especially good for families to bring kids to gain an appreciation of symphonic music.

“The familiarity of a lot of the tunes is perfect for first-time audience members,” he said.