Calling all Stingarees! Orchestra Miami celebrates 90 years of music and memories at Miami Senior High School with a gala concert on Saturday, Jan. 20, 8 p.m. The concert will be performed in the beautiful Mediterranean-revival auditorium of the historic school at 2450 SW First St.
The program features a performance of Gershwin’s An American in Paris, which premiered in 1928, the year that the new building was completed, along with Johann Strauss II’s Overture to Die Fledermaus and Dvorak’s unforgettable Symphony N. 9 in E Minor (“New World” Symphony). Elaine Rinaldi, Orchestra Miami’s artistic director, conducts the 55 musicians of Orchestra Miami.
Founded in 1903, Miami Senior High is the oldest high school in Miami-Dade County. The high school originally served the earliest settling families of Miami in the first half of the 20th Century. Miami High School’s current building is its fourth home. The school board selected a 15-acre campus in the middle of what was then a pine forest.
The “new” building, finished in 1928, was designed in a Spanish Mediterranean style with Moorish and Byzantine details by Richard Kiehnel of Kiehnel and Elliott, one of the great early Miami architects. The building is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Alumni and other supporters are invited to attend a post-concert dessert reception to benefit Miami Senior High and Orchestra Miami. Tickets for the reception are $50 per person and are available at http://bit.ly/MiaHiReception .
Advance purchase tickets for the concert range from $20 to $50 ($25 to $55 at the door) with a 20 percent discount on orchestra seats for seniors and $5 tickets for students. Tickets and information can be found at www.OrchestraMiami.org or by calling 305-274-2103.
Elaine Rinaldi, founder and artistic director of Orchestra Miami, is a Miami native who has chosen to return home and reinvest in her community. Under her artistic supervision and direction, Orchestra Miami has performed high quality classical music concerts to literally thousands of people through its annual Free Outdoor Concerts and introduced over 23,000 school children to classical music through its collaboration with the MDCPS Cultural Passport Program and In-School Performances.
In addition to her work with Orchestra Miami, Rinaldi is much in demand as an opera conductor. In response to her performance of Porgy and Bess, Critic Lawrence Budmen wrote: “Rinaldi showed real affinity for Gershwin’s bluesy brand of Americana, and drew supple playing from the hard-working orchestra, whipping up quite an instrumental storm in the hurricane scene.”
She recently made her European debut at Mezzano Romantico Summer Festival (Fiera di Primiero, Italy) leading performances of Puccini’s Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi and made her debut with Opera Orlando and the Tri-Cities Opera, conducting sold-out performances of Don Giovanni for both companies.
