The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra is holding a novel family concert on Sunday, Mar. 10 at 2 pm at East Ridge Middle School. Yvonne Caruthers, a cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra, has created a series of programs called “Connections” which relate music to other disciplines. She and Maestro Jerry Steichen will use the orchestra, laptop computer, projector, and large screen to explore relationships between music and math. Topics include counting and units, fractions, graphs, ratios, and reading music. Another subject includes the history of frequencies, ratios, and tuning, which dates to Pythagoras but required several centuries for a satisfactory solution. Her programs have appeared throughout the U.S. and on television, and six were held in January at the Kennedy Center. The material is of interest to adults and children, and the Orchestra is hosting children from the Carver Center (Norwalk) and Escape to the Arts (Danbury).
Ms. Caruthers is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and she has played with the orchestras of Syracuse, Rochester, Denver, and Buffalo before taking her position in Washington, D.C. in 1978. She also teaches privately and has presented her Connections programs throughout the U.S.
The program includes excerpts from many famous pieces: Marriage of Figaro Overture (Mozart), Blue Danube Waltz (J. Strauss Jr.), Fifth Symphony, first movement (Beethoven), Hoedown (Copland), Unfinished Symphony, first movement (Schubert), William Tell Overture, allegro (Rossini), and America (West Side Story, Bernstein).
The concert is sponsored by Charles and Sheila Perrin and the Elizabeth Raymond Ambler Trust. Single ticket prices are $15. To purchase tickets, use www.ridgefieldsymphony.org (preferred) or call the orchestra office at (203)438-3889.
