NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, May 13.
The Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra — featuring cellist Traci Winters — will lead the audience on a musical journey to Italy during two performances this weekend.
Winters, a Port Angeles native who’s traveled the world with her cello, said she is looking forward to her latest musical trip, exploring Luigi Boccherini’s Cello Concerto in B-flat major.
She’ll play it as the finale at both orchestra concerts.
This piece “is very Italian,” the musician said recently, waving her hands.
Winters said she is busy exploring the progression of the concerto.
At first, she said, it’s “conversational,” taking listeners by the hand.
Then it grows somber, she said, but not for long.
Finally, the piece is “spunky, in three-four time,” she said.
“To me, it feels like lots of mood swings,” she concluded.
Two shows
The first concert will begin at 7 tonight at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 Lopez Ave., Port Angeles.
The second will be at the same time Saturday at Sequim Worship Center, 640 N. Sequim Ave.
Admission to either event is $12 for those 17 and older and free for those 16 and younger accompanied by an adult.
The two evenings of music include the Serenade for Strings and a piece titled “Elegy” by Edward Elgar, plus two George Frideric Handel pieces, the Concerto Grosso in G major and “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” from the oratorio Solomon.
“Sheba,” a short, lively piece, became famous at the London Olympics in 2012, when it played during the Opening Ceremonies.
The chamber orchestra is a “25-member ensemble that is a subset of the entire symphony orchestra,” said Diane Urbani de la Paz, Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra event manager.
The ensemble is conducted by Jonathan Pasternack, who is wrapping up his first season leading the community orchestra.
While Winters — an orchestra teacher with the Port Angeles School District — is the featured soloist, the chamber orchestra includes performers from both Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Among those who travel to Port Angeles to perform with the orchestra are oboist Anne Krabill of Port Townsend and teenage violinist Jasmine Gauthun of Sequim.
Call of the cello
Winters said she was a girl of 10 when she laid eyes on the cello.
“I remember it vividly . . . at Franklin Elementary, they let you try out all the instruments,” she said.
“I sat with the cello. And it fit.”
Winters joined the Port Angeles Symphony by the time she was in middle school. Not many years later, she played at New York City’s Carnegie Hall with the Port Angeles High School Roughrider Orchestra, led by Ron Jones, in 1989.
After graduation, she attended Western Washington University on a merit scholarship.
With ensembles including Tangoheart, Sorrelle and the Bottom Line Duo, Winters has performed and taught music from Leavenworth to Cebreros, Spain.
Currently — besides her work at Port Angeles’ Roosevelt and Jefferson elementary schools — Winters is principal cellist with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra.
Winters said that when she is on stage it is easy to get swept up in the emotions conveyed by the music, but that “you can’t let it go to your head.”
“It’s like walking a tightrope,” she added, with the music rushing as a current below.
And, she added, there is nothing compared to hearing it all live in the chamber-orchestra setting.
“It’s totally 3-D, high-def, surround-sound,” she said. “Acoustic music resonates in your bones.”
For more information, visit portangelessymphony.org or call 360-457-5579.
