SFA’s Orchestra of the Pines presents season opening concert

The Orchestra of the Pines at Stephen F. Austin State University will present its season opening concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Pierre-Alain Chevalier will debut as the orchestra’s new music director, and he has selected a program that features works by Richard Wagner, Edward Gregson and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Casey Stringer, one of last year’s winners in SFA School of Music’s concerto competition, will perform as tuba soloist on Gregson’s Concerto for tuba and orchestra (1976). Stringer is a sophomore music education major at SFA. He participates in various ensembles, such as the SFA tuba-euphonium ensemble, the Wind Ensemble and the Orchestra of the Pines. Stringer was most recently named one of the winners of the Clara Freshour Nelson Scholarship, which is awarded each year to only seven students across the state of Texas.

Other featured concert selections are Wagner’s Prelude to “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” (1867) and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 36 (1802).

Chevalier has performed with orchestras across the country and was a winner of the International Conductors Workshop and Competition in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2016.

He is music director of the Baytown Symphony Orchestra. An active orchestra clinician, he has served the communities of Baytown and Houston in the Goose Creek Memorial, Cypress-Fairbanks, Spring, Klein, Katy and Houston independent school districts.

In concert, Chevalier has conducted the Symphony of Southeast Texas, Coeur D’Alene Symphony (Idaho), Rainier Symphony (Washington), the Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra (Georgia), the Bayou City Symphony (Texas), the Rose City Chamber Orchestra (Oregon), the Hartt Symphony Orchestra and Contemporary Players (Connecticut), the Moores School Symphony and Chamber Orchestras (Texas), Houston Community College’s Southwest Choir, the Houston Cecelia Chamber Choir and Willamette University’s Dramatic Vocal Arts Ensemble (Oregon). He’s conducted musical theater and opera productions, as well as student choirs and instrumental ensembles in primary and secondary schools and colleges.

Chevalier holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from the Moores School of Music, a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from The Hartt School and a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Willamette University.

Cole Concert Hall is located in the Tom and Peggy Wright Music Building, 2210 Alumni Drive.

The concert is a joint presentation of the College of Fine Arts and School of Music. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.