North Shore Symphony Orchestra to perform on November 4

The Island Now
Erik Ralske Credit: David Finlayson

The North Shore Symphony Orchestra will open its 57th season with Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus Overture.

The concert will take place on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. at Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School (50 Kennedy Drive in Plainview).

The orchestra will showcase the talents of Erik Ralske, principal horn of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, as it performs Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat Major, K.495, and Mozart’s Concert Rondo, K.371.  Tchaikovsky’s fateful, melancholy, and ultimately joyful Symphony No.4 in F minor, Op. 36 will complete the concert.

A Long Island native, Ralske was appointed by Maestro James Levine as principal horn of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra beginning with the 2010-2011 season. On July 6, 2010 he was featured in a front-page article in The New York Times for having won both the MET Opera position and the Los Angeles Philharmonic principal horn positions in the same week.

Prior to joining the MET Orchestra, Ralske was a member of the New York Philharmonic for 17 seasons — 11 years as third horn, and six years as acting associate principal horn. During his tenure with the New York Philharmonic, he was a soloist with the orchestra more than a dozen times with former music directors Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel.

Ralske’s other previous orchestra positions include associate principal horn with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and principal horn with the Vancouver Symphony and Florida Symphony Orchestras. He also serves as principal horn of the “All-Star Orchestra,” a series on PBS.

Ralske has long been active in the recording industry, having performed on many movie soundtracks, from Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” (1986) to recent releases, such as “A Dog’s Purpose” (2017). His 2011 live performance of Siegfried’s Horn Call is available on iTunes as a MET Opera “Ring Tone.”

Currently, Ralske is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music. He received both his bachelor of music and master of music degrees from the Juilliard School.

Maestro Harry Marenstein
Credit: Howard Rockwin

In addition to Ralske, the November 4th concert will bring together the talents of the 75-member North Shore Symphony Orchestra, Long Island’s most established community orchestra, under the helm of Principal Guest Conductor Harry Marenstein.

Marenstein joined the faculty of Nassau Community College (SUNY) in 2005, where he is director of orchestral activities, and currently holds the rank of associate professor.  He is also the conductor of the Youth Symphony at Gemini Youth Orchestras and principal guest conductor of the North Shore Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his conducting and teaching activities, Marenstein performs as a freelance violinist with several New York-area orchestras, as well as his own group, the Grand Central String Quartet.

Tickets to the concert are $15 for general admission and $12 for seniors/students and may be purchased at the door 30 minutes prior to the concert.

For more information about North Shore Symphony Orchestra and the evening’s concert, go to www.northshoresymphonyorch.org or call 631-827-5401.

The NSSO is also sponsoring the second annual New Horizons Composers Competition, which was established to recognize rising metropolitan New York area young composers between the ages of 18 and 30. The winning composition will be selected by jury and the composer will be honored at the NSSO concert to be held on June 2, 2018 when the orchestra performs the composition. Competition applicants must be resident of Nassau County, Suffolk County, or the five boroughs of New York, or studying at an institution within these areas. There is no entry fee for the competition.

Winners of the inaugural running of the NHCC were recognized at the NSSO’s June 3, 2017
concert. Works by Nicholas Hall (No Longer There, But Here) and Alan Hankers (Aura) were
enthusiastically performed to a welcoming audience. The works of these two Long Island-based composers stood out from a large pool of exceptional entries, demonstrating the wealth of talent in our regional area.

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