THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150392
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
What caught my eye about the Virginia Symphony's program for a concert Thursday at the Norfolk Botanical Garden was the chance to hear Aaron Copland's ``Outdoor Overture.''
What an apt overture for outdoors!
In Austin, Texas, conductor Timothy Muffitt said Tuesday he likes ``the spirit of it to reach new people,'' whom he hopes will be among those gathered at 7 p.m. tomorrow when he raises the baton.
Copland was commissioned to write the overture to reach the young, Muffitt said. The nine-minute piece also lures people not prone to go to symphonies.
He had found me.
``It has some dramatic moments and it is a very lively, positive, energetic piece,'' he said.
A few important melodies occur throughout.
``Are the melodies of the sort one might whistle?'' I asked, a question among the most inane he must have heard. He persevered.
``Right after the introduction, there's a fine trumpet solo that is very whistleable,'' he noted.
He whistles it?
He does, he said. ``It's very much a memorable kind of melody. I do find it coming to my mind quite a bit. From the musical ideas in that melody, the rest of the piece unfolds.''
The program also will include Gould's ``American Salute'' and selections from Gershwin's ``Porgy and Bess.''
People, he said, will also recognize variations from a Shaker melody, ``Simple Gifts.'' Among lighter pieces will be a Dixieland medley.
Muffitt is conductor of the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater and assistant conductor of the Austin Symphony Orchestra. His wife, Diane, teaches music in the public schools. They have a dog, Kate.
Muffitt, born at Stratford, Conn., began learning piano at age 7. ``It was a gradual awakening that sort of consumed my life,'' he said.
Later, he studied the viola and trumpet. While he was in college at Ohio State University, ``a few opportunities to conduct came naturally, and pretty soon people started asking me to do more.'' He taught while earning a doctorate at the Eastman School of Music at Rochester, N.Y.
Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for students and military. Children under 6 are free. To find where to buy tickets, call the Virginia Symphony at 623-2310. Picnic baskets are welcome.
``Bring a blanket, sit down and relax, have a picnic and enjoy a nice evening of music,'' Muffitt advised.
The reporter said he was minded to catch that memorable trumpet solo.
``You should,'' Muffitt said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Timothy Muffitt, conductor of the University of Texas Symphony
Orchestra and Opera Theater and assistant conductor of the Austin
Symphony Orchestra, will lead the Virginia Symphony in concert at 7
p.m. Thursday at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.
by CNB