Lauren Ostrom, for the Review
The Linfield Chamber Orchestra will perform its first concert of the 2009-2010 season Oct. 2.
The concert, “Infatuation,” will include three different pieces: Rossini’s “La Cenerentola,” Cherunbini’s “Symphony in D” and Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.”
The last piece will feature vocal accompaniment from the Linfield choral department. Six students will sing: Sophomores Logan Freitas, Chelsea Janzen, Kayla Wilkens and Jeremy Moll and seniors Andrew Pohl and Natalie Lindsey.
Chamber Orchestra Administrator John Paul Bierly and Professor of Chemistry Jim Diamond will sing in the “Marriage of Figaro,” as well.
Moll said he is excited to sing with the orchestra.
“To perform with a full orchestra is different from the last opera I performed in, where we just had a piano and us singers,” he said.
Moll said the orchestra is a mix of students and community members.
“Only a small number of the Linfield orchestra is actually students; it’s cool to have a diverse group,” he said.
Bierly said the orchestra is excited to perform with the vocal department.
“This Friday is unique because it’s our first concert, and the fact that Linfield has professional mentors as a part of the orchestra is great,” he said. “Linfield students don’t have to go to Portland to experience professional music, they have it here.”
The orchestra usually plays a professional type of classical music, so it was nothing new for them to perform Mozart.
“We have four total concerts: We have one more in the winter and two in the spring, so we are really excited for this first concert,” Moll said
The next concert isn’t until December, so this concert is exclusive. Both the orchestra and vocalists are looking forward to performing with each other.
They said they have prepared for the concert by rehearsing up to three times each week since the beginning of the summer. The concert opens at 8 p.m. Oct. 2 in Ice Auditorium and is free to Linfield students.
For more information and to find out LCO’s complete schedule, check out its Web site at www.lcomusic.org.
Linfield students will dance for food
Claire Oliver, managing editor
The Linfield Ballroom Club and Yamhill County Food Bank will swing into action against hunger in the local community with a charity dance to be held Oct. 9 at the McMinnville Grand Ballroom.
Those involved said the project is more important than ever.
“With our current economic situation and joblessness, the need for food in our county has increased. More and more people are turning to our food pantries and soup kitchens to help feed their families in these tough times,” Neal Nysson, food resource development coordinator for Yamhill Community Action Partnership, said in an e-mail.
Nysson, along with junior Kelley Hungerford, Ballroom Club founder and president, and Steven Battaglia, the Grand Ballroom’s manager, have been working for several months to coordinate the fundraiser.
The dance is also the club’s first official event of the school year.
The club is one of several student groups partnered with YCAP. Nysson, however, said the project can use all the help it can get.
In 2008, the organization served more than 60,000 people, and Nysson said 2009 has seen a 16-percent increase of those in need — roughly 10,000 in Yamhill county alone.
Considering these statistics, Nysson said student involvement is crucial.
“I think it is really spectacular that we have people in our community who devote their time and energy for the benefit of others,” he said. “The more food we bring into the food bank, the more people we can serve.”
The YCAP Food Bank is one of 20 regional food banks that form the statewide Oregon Food Bank network, Nysson said. All food and proceeds collected at the dance will be distributed to the 26 emergency food box pantries, group homes and soup kitchens that the food bank’s agencies in Yamhill County comprise
The event is not meant to be entirely philanthropic, however.
“Even if you don’t swing dance yet, you can show up early and take a lesson, then swing away for less than the cost of a movie ticket. We’re talking about hours of rug cutting and feeding the hungry all in one,” Nysson said.
The event will begin with a basic swing lesson at 7:30 p.m., followed by an open dance from 8:30 – 10:30. The dance is open to the public and costs $8, or $5 with a donation of three or more cans of food.
“I think that a lot of us have cans of food sitting around in our pantries,” Nysson said. “Why not cash them in for a little fun?”