News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu Spring 2004 news releases Public Information home News archive Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 2/28/05   Click on image for publication quality photo  LPO BRINGS RUSSIAN CLASSICS TO COLUMBIA THEATRE MARCH 11       HAMMOND – The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra will bring the sound of Russian classics to Southeastern Louisiana University’s Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts on March 11.       “St. Petersburg and Moscow,” an LPO “Causal Classics” concert, will feature beloved works by composers such as Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Conducted by LPO Maestro Timothy Muffitt, the program is the second of three LPO concerts slated for the downtown Hammond theater during its 2004-2005 season.        Tickets for the 7 p.m. performance are available at the Columbia box office, 220 E. Thomas Street, 985-543-4371. Tickets are $33, Orchestra 1 and Loge; $27, Orchestra 2 and Balcony 1; $20, Orchestra 3; and $19, Balcony 2. Box office hours are noon-5 p.m., weekdays. Tickets are also available online through TicketWeb.        The program will begin with Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” a rousing concert opener written in 1947 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of a momentous event in Soviet history, the October Revolution of 1917. Unlike much Soviet “Party” music, the piece has a niche among Shostakovich’s most popular works because of its brilliant scoring, fine craftsmanship and witty effects.        Shostakovich will be followed by a march from Serge Prokofiev’s zany opera “The Love for Three Oranges,” a work characterized by Prokofiev’s acerbic harmonies, droll tunes and satirical twists. Up next will be Tchaikovsky’s incomparable “Swan Lake,” unarguably the world’s favorite ballet score, and the overture to another opera, “Russian and Ludmilla,” by , Mikhail Glinka, Russia’s first important classical composer.        The LPO will also perform a special arrangement for violin and piano of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee,” the most famous number of the composer’s opera, “Tsar Saltan.”        The concert will conclude with excerpts from “Gayaneh” by Aram Khachaturian, one of the most brilliant composers to come out of the former Soviet Union, and “Polovtsian Dances” from Alexander Borodin’s opera “Price Igor.”           For additional information about the LPO’s concert, contact the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, 985-543-4366.