Special Events

Friday Morning Music Club 130th Anniversary Concert

I was invited by the Friday Morning Music Club again to take pictures of their performance, but this time it was in honor of the club’s 130th anniversary! That’s a really long time. So I spent a Sunday afternoon at the Northern Virginia Community College performance hall capturing the Avanti orchestra, conducted by Pablo Saelzer. They first played Scheherazade suite by Rimsky-Korsakov and then were joined by the choir and winners of the Washington International Voice Competition who sang selections from Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus. The event was capped by a champagne-and-cake reception afterwards to mark the illustrious event.

The performance was also reviewed by the Washington Post, where one of my photos appeared! Yippee! Here are a few more from the concert!

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Random, Special Events

The Avanti Orchestra

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The Avanti Orchestra is the orchestra of the Friday Morning Music Club, “a community of music lovers and musicians,” which “has promoted classical music in the Washington area for over 125 years.” It’s a volunteer group of experienced classical musicians who gather, play music, and perform for the greater Washington audience. The orchestra is led by Pablo Saelzer, a conductor who hails from Chile and teaches at Montgomery College. I was recently invited to photograph the orchestra as they performed at the Kennedy Center, featuring Washington International Competition winner, violist Deng Yifei of China. As a classically trained pianist and flutist, I was excited to be back on stage with other musicians, even though this time I was playing the part of the principal photographer.

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