The Lake Norman Orchestra is heading back to Salisbury this fall, bringing a program built around George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue to the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church on November 8. The free concert, titled Rhapsody in Blue and More, runs from 2 to 4 p.m. and features the 60-member all-volunteer ensemble under music director Samuel A. Kyzer, with pianist Teresa de Freitas stepping out from behind the church's own music program to take the solo spotlight.
According to WFAE, the program pairs Gershwin's landmark symphonic jazz piece with Robert W. Smith's Into the Storm, Bizet's Prelude to Carmen, Suppé's Light Cavalry Overture, a Richard Rodgers medley, and a set of James Bond film themes. De Freitas is not a stranger to the venue: she serves as the Director of Music Ministries at First Presbyterian Church of Salisbury, where she leads the church's choir and contemporary music programs, per the church's own account of its staff.
A Homecoming for the Soloist
De Freitas's dual role gives the concert a personal thread that runs through both the orchestra and the host congregation. She regularly performs in regional keyboard concerts even as she oversees the church's sanctuary choir, according to First Presbyterian Church of Salisbury. That connection means the Mooresville-based orchestra isn't simply borrowing a sanctuary for an afternoon: it's teaming up with a musician already embedded in the building's day-to-day life.
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the piece anchoring the program, premiered on February 12, 1924, at Aeolian Hall in New York City with Paul Whiteman's jazz band, according to Carnegie Hall. The work's blending of American jazz and European symphonic tradition made it a defining piece of 20th-century American music, and the Salisbury performance arrives in the wake of recent centennial celebrations marking that 1924 debut.
An All-Volunteer Ensemble With Deep Regional Roots
The Lake Norman Orchestra was founded in 2002 as an all-volunteer community orchestra based in Mooresville, and it received its federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in April 2005, according to ProPublica's nonprofit records. The group draws musicians ranging from students to retirees across the Lake Norman and Charlotte areas, and it rehearses weekly on Monday evenings at Eastside Baptist Church in Mooresville, according to Mooresville Now.
Beyond its concert calendar, the orchestra supports a college scholarship fund for music students and keeps an open call for volunteer string and percussion players, the outlet reports. Kyzer's ensemble maintains a touring footprint across the Piedmont, staging free community concerts at venues including Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Cornelius, Liberty Park Amphitheater in Mooresville, and Laurel Gray Vineyards in Hamptonville, according to WDAV 89.9.
A Sanctuary Built on Two Centuries of History
The concert's setting carries its own weight. First Presbyterian Church of Salisbury was formally organized on August 1, 1821, in the city's Historic West End Square district, giving the congregation more than two centuries of history in Rowan County, according to the church. The current sanctuary, where the November concert will take place, was designed by architect John Erwin Ramsay and held its inaugural service on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1969.
That 1969 building replaced an 1892 Romanesque Revival sanctuary that was demolished in 1971. Community efforts to save that structure's brick-and-stone bell tower led directly to the formation of the Historic Salisbury Foundation, and the preserved tower later inspired the creation of the adjacent Bell Tower Green downtown park, according to the church's account of its own history.
The concert is free and open to the public at First Presbyterian Church, located at 308 W. Fisher St. in Salisbury. Those with questions can reach the church at 704-636-1321 or the Lake Norman Orchestra at 704-677-2412 or [email protected]. More information on the orchestra is available at lknorchestra.org.
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