SWAMPSCOTT — The North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra is excited to bring a live classical music performance to the town’s high-school auditorium again on Sunday, featuring a world-renowned violinist, Lucia Lin.
The North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra (NSPO) will play its two-hour Winter Concert on Feb. 27 at 3 p.m.
The concert program will open with Michail Glika’s “Overture to ‘Ruslan and Ludmilla’” and conclude with Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 1. Lucia Lin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) who will play the violin solo for Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto.
“For an orchestra such as ours to have a soloist of Lucia Lin’s reputation and talent is really a privilege for us and for the musicians that will play with her,” said Robert Marra, president of the NSPO’s board of directors, “and for the audience that gets to see her up close and personal at a very inexpensive price.”
Lin has enjoyed a stellar career as soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. She debuted at age 11 when she performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She joined the BSO in 1985 and won the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Lin has played with the Boston Pops, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and the Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria. She has held concertmaster roles with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra’s music director, Robert Lehmann, usually chooses music pieces for the concerts based on what he feels the audience will enjoy, what the orchestra is capable of, what the musicians would be interested in playing and what might attract a soloist like Lucia Lin, Marra said.
“Orchestras like the North Shore Philharmonic can become a showcase for both established musicians and sometimes for young, aspiring musicians,” said Marra.
The Winter Concert will be the second performance for the orchestra since almost a two-season hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We came back in November and then the way things were going over the winter, we started to worry we were going to get wiped out again in February. Thankfully, the pandemic has calmed down a little bit. So we are able to play,” said Marra. “We are excited about that.”
The NSPO has been performing regularly at Swampscott High School since it was built in 2007.
“The auditorium at Swampscott High is pretty impressive. It has good acoustics,” said Marra. “It is built more for theater than concerts, but we are pretty happy with it.”
The NSOP was founded in 1947, when 15 North Shore musicians organized the Lynn Philharmonic Orchestra.
“It wasn’t as easy to get around as it is now,” said Marra, whose father was among the founders. “If people wanted to hear high-quality classical music, they had to go into Boston for it.”
That is why the mission of the orchestra became to provide high-quality performances of classical repertoire at a convenient and easily accessible venue on the North Shore. The group adopted its current name in 1948.
Lehmann became the NSPO’s fourth music director in 1997-98. He is a professor of music at the University of Southern Maine School of Music, where he conducts the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra and the Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished violinist and has concertized both as conductor and violinist in his native Mexico, throughout the U.S., Central America, Europe, and Ukraine.
Lehmann has been a frequent guest conductor with the Portland Symphony, Portland Ballet, and has conducted All-State and Festival Orchestras from Maine to California and Hawaii.
The NSPO is a community orchestra staffed largely by volunteer players who are music-loving business men and women, academics, religious leaders, engineers, teachers, students, homemakers, retirees and freelance musicians. It is supported by an all-volunteer administrative staff, which oversees all non-musical aspects of every performance.
The orchestra plays three concerts a season, covering the full range of symphonic and pops repertoire and focusing primarily on instrumental works.
“It is a treat to see an orchestra of that many musicians on a stage performing live and performing music that is hundreds of years old,” said Marra. “It is something special and I think for people who love and appreciate classical music or people who are curious about it, it is quite an experience and we would hope they come and enjoy the concert.”
Tickets can be purchased at the door before the performance at $30 for an adult ticket and $25 for a senior or a student. Children under 13 can attend the concert for free.
Out of concern for the health and safety of all musicians and audience members, the NSPO requires all patrons attending the concert to present proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or proof of a negative COVID test no more than 72 hours prior to the concert. Home tests are not accepted. Patrons will be required to wear masks and socially distance themselves in the auditorium.
