NATCHITOCHES – The Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra will open its 60th with a concert titled “Adoration of Mother Nature and the Ascending Strength of the Earth” on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall.
The concert will feature a world premiere of American composer Dosia McKay’s “Earthrise.” Also on the program are works by Beethoven and Telemann. Dr. Douglas Bakenhus is musical director of the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra.
Tickets are$16.50 each and can be purchased online at https://nnssla.org/. There is an added charge for buying tickets online. For more information, email NSUsymphony@gmail.com.
Support for the orchestra is provided through the Friends of the Symphony. Season ticket packages start at $50 for an individual. Those 65 and older can buy two season tickets for $50. Support at the Patron level is $100 for three season tickets and $250 for four season tickets at the Benefactor level. A Gold Underwriter package is available for $500 which includes four season tickets and a one-eighth page ad in the concert program. For $1,000, Platinum Underwriters receive six season tickets, and a one-quarter page program ad.
McKay, originally from Poland, composed this powerful work during the pandemic and then the Russian-Ukraine war. Instead of a grim, menacing piece she found herself “…chiseling a sonic space that gradually became more and more hopeful, idealistic and even triumphant. I kept envisioning Earth gathering strength and ultimately rising to overcome the darkness and the evil inflicted on her and her inhabitants.”
McKay composes music for the concert stage, film and modern dance. A versatile sound colorist, McKay in her recent compositions, has been drawn toward vibrant and rich sonic landscapes reflective of her own abstract paintings. Her portfolio includes works for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, choir, soloists, as well as electro-acoustic installations.
Notable performers of her work include the New York City Ballet Orchestra, The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, the North/South Consonance Orchestra of New York, the Polish avant-garde string quartet NeoQuartet, the Polish Orpheus Orchestra, the Asheville chamber music repertory company Pan Harmonia, the S.E.M. Ensemble, Spartanburg Philharmonic String Trio, Asheville Ballet, baroque lutenist Will Tocaben and Argentine guitar virtuoso Sergio Puccini.
McKay is also a painter concentrating on portraiture and abstract expressionist imagery. She has published a collection of poems, short stories and essays on her blog Music Well. She has also released her debut novel, a psychological thriller, “the Flow.”