Oneota Valley Community Orchestra Presents "Winter Dreams"

If no one funds local news, your community is just rumors. Help Decorah News bring facts home. DECORAH — The Oneota Valley Community Orchestra will present a program titled "Winter Dreams" at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, in the Decorah High School auditorium. OVCO Music Director Matthew Cody will conduct the orchestra in a program concluding with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 in G minor, "Winter Daydreams," the Russian composer's earliest notable work. The concert opens with the world premiere of "Drift" by composer James Romig, a work commissioned by OVCO featuring electric cello soloist Craig Hultgren. The first half of the performance will also include Sergei Prokofiev's "Lieutenant Kijé Suite." Tchaikovsky wrote Symphony No. 1 in 1866 shortly after accepting a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory. The work reflects elements of Russian nationalist style and is noted for its orchestration and thematic character. Romig, who teaches at Western Illinois University and heads the composition area, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in music for his solo piano work "Still." He studied at the University of Iowa and Rutgers University. "Drift" expands on "Driftless," a piece for amplified solo cello and digital reverb that Romig composed for Hultgren in 2021. In "Drift," the orchestra creates a reverberant texture surrounding the soloist and transforming the sound of the electric cello over the work's approximately 12-minute duration. Hultgren has had more than 300 solo compositions written for him. New York Classical Review noted he "played with impressive poise and sensitivity" during Dorothy Hindman's 2016 chamber music retrospective at Carnegie Hall. He received a 2022 performance award from the Doug Davis Endowment for a video of his performance of Lukas Foss' "Capriccio" at the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival in Memphis. He is a founding member of Luna Nova, a new music ensemble with a large recorded repertoire, and has released works including "Songs for Cello and Piano" by Ben Hippen on Spotify. He performs on an electric cello commissioned from Tucker Barrett of Vermont in 2001. The concert is free and open to the public. The orchestra is sponsored by the Marion E. Jerome Foundation and the Depot Outlet, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Economic Development Authority. More information is available at ovcorchestra.org. Get the inside scoop! Subscribe to the free DecorahNews.com newsletter and receive local news, expert analysis, and stories that matter most—straight to your inbox.