The Lamar Civic Orchestra’s second season opens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, with works by Herold, Britten, Respighi and Grainger.  The ensemble is directed by Kurt Gilman, associate professor of music and coordinator of the string program at Lamar.  The free concert will be in the Lamar University Setzer Student Center Ballroom.
   The Lamar Civic Orchestra is a full symphony orchestra, organized by Gilman and the Department of Music last year to provide an opportunity for trained musicians from all walks of life to perform together and enrich the community.
   “We’ve been very pleased with the response to the Lamar Civic Orchestra,” said Gilman.  “It draws a diversity of players such that it is a terrific medley of members, ranging from talented undergraduate and graduate students at Lamar, the Texas Academy of Leadership in the Humanities, Lamar faculty and staff, area music educators, and many Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana players from a multiplicity of professions.”
   The concert opens with the “Overture to Zampa,” by Ferdinand Herold.  According to Gilman, the opera “Zampa” was very popular when it premiered in 1831 and still is heard in modern performances, mostly in Germany and France.  
   “The overture is full of lively tunes with sudden tempo and mood changes,” said Gilman.  “It is performed more frequently than the opera itself and presents a spirited and uplifting opening to any orchestra concert.”
   The orchestra’s strings will next perform the “Simple Symphony” of English composer Benjamin Britten.  Gilman calls this work “masterful string writing” and reports that Britten based the material for his “Simple Symphony” entirely on works he composed between the ages of 9 and 12.
   After the “Simple Symphony,” the orchestra’s strings and winds will perform “Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1,” by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi.  This composer, said Gilman, was known chiefly for his larger tone poems such as “The Pines of Rome” and spent much of his life collecting old music, mostly Italian, and arranging it for modern performance.  Such is the case with Suite No. 1, which is based on 16^th- and 17^th-century Italian and French pieces, mostly drawn from late 19^th-century transcriptions by Oscar Chilesotti.  The ensemble for these pieces includes harp, performed by Charlotte Mizener, and harpsichord, performed by Betsy Hines, both music faculty at Lamar University.
   The final two works on the program were written by Australian composer Percy Grainger, who acknowledged that most of his compositions were created as a tribute to the people and scenery of his favorite countries.  The orchestra will perform his pieces “Mock Morris” and “Shepherd’s Hey,” which, according to Grainger, were influenced by London music hall songs.
   For more information on the Lamar Civic Orchestra or the upcoming concert, visit lamar.edu/music or call (409) 880-8144.