Chamber Orchestra to Showcase Pianist Joseph Kingma

January 27, 2023 – Sarasota

The Chamber Orchestra of Sarasota will feature guest artist and award-winning pianist Joseph Kingma in a concert titled “Virtuoso Night,” 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 15, at St. Boniface Episcopal Church, 5615 Midnight Pass Road, Siesta Key. The third concert of the orchestra’s sixth season will include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s charming Divertimento in F Major, Carl Nielsen’s graceful “Little Suite for Strings” and Leoš Janáček’s powerful Suite for String Orchestra.

“We are delighted to return to St. Boniface for this concert,” said Music Director and Conductor Robert Vodnoy. “Joseph played with us at this venue last season. The church owns a beautiful piano and the setting under its stunning stained-glass windows makes it a special place. I’m sure the audience will love this evening of virtuoso music, which highlights the talents of our special guest artist and the members of the orchestra.”

The program opens with J. S. Bach’s Piano Concerto in F Minor, with Kingma at the keyboard. The pianist received the Lorin Hollander Award in the American Prize Competition for his 2021 performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto” with the Chamber Orchestra. Kingma, who won First Prize in the American Liszt Society’s 2017 Franz Liszt International Piano Festival and Competition, is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (Music Teachers National Association) and the Coordinator of the Keyboard Division and Assistant Professor of Piano at Palm Beach Atlantic University. This will be his third appearance with the orchestra. 

“The Chamber Orchestra is proud of our collaboration with Joseph,” said Vodnoy. “I wanted to bring him back to Sarasota to celebrate him winning the Hollander Award. I suggested the Bach F Minor Concerto in part because I conducted the piece with Lorin Hollander a while ago.”

Mozart composed his spirited Divertimento in F Major in 1772 for a planned musical trip to Italy. He was only 16 years old. It is written in the style of an Italian sinfonia, with a nod to the music of Johann Christian Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach’s youngest son. Carl Nielsen wrote his “Little Suite” in 1886. He had graduated from the Copenhagen Conservatory and was teaching and playing violin while studying with Orla Rosenhoff. The suite was his first published composition.

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, folklorist and teacher. He was a younger colleague of Antonín Dvořák. The Suite, written in 1977, is in six brief movements. 

“Virtuoso Night” is sponsored by Stan and Margaret Krol and the Marie Beckman Declaration of Trust. 

The Chamber Orchestra will conclude its 2022-2023 season on Thursday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 2050 Oak St., Sarasota, with “Celebration.” The concert will feature the music of five Jewish composers, in honor of the 75^th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. The orchestra will perform compositions by Mendelssohn, Gershwin and Bloch, plus the U.S. premieres of works by Israeli composers Boris Levenberg and Noubar Aslanyan.

Tickets for each concert are $35 and can be ordered online or purchased at the door. To purchase tickets and for more information, visit chamberorchestrasarasota.org or call 219-928-8665.