OAK RIDGE, TN — The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association continues its 75th anniversary celebration, presenting special fundraising concerts and events plus five concerts in the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and Chamber Music Series from February through May. Top names headlining the remainder of the season include mandolin player Jeff Midkiff, ORSO Concertmaster Karen Kartal, violist Derek Reeves, double-bassist Edgar Meyer, violinist George Meyer, and guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima. Detailed information is available online at ORCMA.org.

Derek Reeves on the viola; image courtesy of ORCMA

Karen Kartal performs Concertmaster & Friends with special guest Jeff Midkiff on the Chamber Music Series, Saturday February 1, 7:30 PM at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. The gypsy-themed program is comprised of music by Franz Josef Haydn, Johannes Brahms and Jeff Midkiff, and also features cellist Dan Allcott, pianist Emi Kagawa, violist Sara Lee-Cho and violinist Lisa Muci Eckhoff.

Violist and violinist Derek Reeves guest solos with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra in music by Georg Philipp Telemann and William Grant Still on February 9, 3:00 PM at the Grove Theater. The orchestra fills the program, Musical Firsts, with music by internationally acclaimed composers of color – Jessie Montgomery, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Daniel Bernard Roumain.

Famed Oak Ridge native, double bassist Edgar Meyer, returns home to perform a special fundraising concert for ORCMA with his son, violinist George Meyer on Monday, February 17, 7:30 PM at First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge. Adult tickets are $35 in advance; $40 at the door. Tickets for Youth 18 & Younger are $15.

On Saturday February 29, 2:00 PM at First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge, the Oak Ridge Chorus performs Leap Year & Light Opera led by Choral Director Seth O’Kegley. The concert will delight audience members with short scenes, solo arias, and choruses by Gilbert & Sullivan, Johann Strauss II, Leonard Bernstein and more. An optional catered luncheon is available for purchase during the first act of the concert.

Saturday March 7, 10:00 AM–8:00 PM features the special 8th ORCMA All-Day Music Festival, from Rock to Bach at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. Enjoy music of all genres performed by 18 local and regional groups, featured on two stages. A silent auction and catered dinner top off the day. $15 Adult tickets; $12 in advance. Tickets for Youth 5-18 are $5. Families, $30. Dinner $50.

In conjunction with Knoxville’s Classical Guitar Society, ORCMA presents legendary Brazilian guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima on the Chamber Music Series at Pollard Auditorium, Saturday, April 25, 7:30 PM.

The season concludes with Music Director Dan Allcott leading the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in Native Lands. Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia and Symphony No. 3 bookend Jeff Midkiff’s performance of his Mandolin Concerto “From the Blue Ridge.”

Individual concert tickets may be purchased online, by phone/email, at the ORCMA office, at The Ferrell Shop in Jackson Square one week prior to each concert, or at the door. A discounted half-season subscription is available through January by calling (865) 483-5569.

The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association thanks the Tennessee Arts Commission, UT-Battelle/ORNL, SpectraTech, Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), the Feldman Family, the Tom & Effie Carlson Estate, WUOT 91.9 FM, Holiday Inn Express & Suites, and numerous advertisers, individual donors and in-kind donors for concert and event support.

The purchase of Tennessee Specialty License Plates funds arts programming throughout the state, including ORCMA’s programming. Information may be found at tnspecialtyplates.org.