Symphony has musical trip to Italy

From staff reports

If that trip to Italy you’ve been longing for isn’t in the budget this year, who says a staycation can’t get a little creative? The Charlottesville and University Symphony
Orchestra will open its new season this weekend with “Ciao Bella,” a program of Italian music from a variety of time periods.
The music begins at 8 p.m. Saturday in Cabell Hall Auditorium and at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Monticello High School.
Music director Kate Tamarkin has filled the program with Giuseppe Verdi’s overture to “Nabucco,” Tomaso Albinoni’s “Adagio for Strings in G minor,” Nino Rota’s “Bassoon Concerto” and Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 4,” which is known as — you guessed it — the “Italian Symphony.”
Listeners who’d like to get the inside stories on the compositions on this weekend’s program will want to arrive early.
That’s because Richard Will, associate professor in the McIntire Department of Music at UVa, will present a lecture 45 minutes before each concert. Saturday’s lecture will take place in Old Cabell Hall Room 107, and Sunday’s will be in the MHS Forum.
Tamarkin also will continue her “Noon Notes” lecture series today at noon at Northside Library with a talk about the upcoming concerts.
Elizabeth Roberts will be the bassoon soloist for Rota’s concerto. The principal bassoonist in the symphony, she also stays busy as its outreach coordinator.
Roberts also performs in the Albemarle Ensemble at UVa. She serves as principal bassoonist for the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and freelances with a variety of symphonies, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony and the Richmond Symphony.
Roberts recently presented the Virginia premiere of a recently discovered concerto for bassoon by Gioacchino Rossini, who’s known for his sparkling opera music.
She has performed in the world premieres of compositions by Walter Ross, Arthur Weisberg, Bernard Rands and Gary Schocker.
Parking is free in UVa’s Central Grounds Parking Garage and at the school.
And if Italy’s only the first stop on your staycation world tour, here are some symphony dates to add to your itinerary —Nov. 7 and 8 for “Vive La France,” Feb. 13 and 14 for “Heartland of Europe,” March 27 and 28 for “English Variations” and April 24 and 25 for “The New World.”