By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Listen, music lovers.
The Beaufort County Community Orchestra is tuning up to present another program of classics.
BCCO’s first rehearsal of the season begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church in Washington.
“It’s hugely exciting,” said Robin Potts, BCCO secretary and a violinist with the orchestra. “We’ll be learning music that I’ve never heard of before, and we’ll be hearing things that I’ve heard of but never had an opportunity to play.”
Among the songs in the works are the “Winter” concerto, part of Antonio Vivaldi’s four-part work “The Four Seasons”; “Dance of the Reed Flutes,” from Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” suite; and an arrangement of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.”
BCCO’s musicians will assemble repeatedly to prepare themselves for the season’s first concert in December, shared Chris Ellis, conductor.
This year’s BCCO concerts will reprise some favorite tunes from the orchestra’s past, including some holiday standards, Ellis said.
“We usually try to do some Christmas piece, but we want to make it something other than just carols,” he said.
Ellis recommends that musicians — string players, wind players — interested in joining the orchestra call him at 252-227-0029.
“For string players, there’s no real requirements,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to read music and just generally be able to play your instrument.”
The criteria for wind instruments are higher, partly because brass or woodwind players might be called upon to solo, he related.
“We need more players,” said Ellis. “We need about one more of each (in the wind sections) to really be as full as we want to.”
He added, “The strings, we could add as many as possible.”
Oboist Ralph Stephenson has played with the orchestra for five years.
“It can be a lot of fun, and it’s really enjoyable getting together with that group and playing the kind of music that they do,” Stephenson said. “It’s certainly the only organization that I’m aware of in this community that plays classical music.”
Potts said BCCO draws musicians from as far away as New Bern and Oriental.
“Eleven years ago, legendary musician Doris Hamilton recruited 30 musicians to form the Beaufort County Community Orchestra,” she wrote in a news release, referring to one of BCCO’s founders.
Hamilton has since died, but her musical vision continues, and some of the founding players have continued their association with the orchestra, Potts said.