2025-26 SEASON

The Fremont Symphony Orchestra is presenting a program called “Musician’s Choice,” according to Music Director, Rebecca Murdock. The concert will be performed at the Lander Valley High School auditorium at 7 pm on Saturday, November 8 and tickets are available.

The FSO will feature pianist, Richard Dowling as guest soloist. Dowling has appeared several times with the FSO. Hailed by The New York Times as an “especially impressive fine pianist,” Dowling appears regularly across the United States and throughout the world in orchestral performances, solo recitals and chamber music collaborations. He has been acclaimed by audiences for his elegant and charismatic style of pianism which earns him frequent return engagements. He has received reviews that praise him as a “master of creating beautiful sounds with impeccable control of colors and textures,” and as “a musician with something to say, the skill to say it and the magnetic power to make you want to listen.” 

Dowling will perform Mozart’s Concerto No. 16 K451 with the Symphony as the featured piece on the program. Mozart composed the concerto for performance at a series of concerts at the Vienna venues of the Trattnerhof and the Burgtheater in the first quarter of 1784, where he was himself the soloist.

The concert was named “Musician’s Choice” because the music was primarily chosen by members of the Symphony. One of the younger musicians chose “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” from The Planets by Gustav Holst. Holst's works were played frequently in the early years of the 20th century, but it was not until the international success of The Planets in the years immediately after the First World War that he became a well-known figure. One of the FSO percussionists requested “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel. Bolero became the composer’s most famous piece much to his own surprise, who predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it. An FSO violinist wanted “Hoedown” from Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo”, a piece filled with Americana fiddling, and one of our flutists wanted to perform, “Pavane for a Dead Princess.” The pavane was a slow processional dance that was popular in the courts of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

Finally, Conductor Rebecca Murdock asked Richard Dowling if he would consider ending the concert with the “Warsaw Concerto” by Richard Addinsell. Murdock remembers her mother working on this piece when she was a child. It is a short piece written for piano and orchestra in 1941 for the British film “Dangerous Moonlight”. Mr. Dowling was delighted to perform this beautiful piece written in imitation of the style of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

The Symphony includes musicians from throughout Fremont County and brings musicians from around the state and region for the performances. The FSO is operated by a local board of directors as a non-profit. Contributions may be mailed to the Fremont Symphony Orchestra at 811 Cindy Circle in Riverton, WY 82501-3040. The FSO is grateful for the financial support of the Lander Community Foundation, Lander District Recreation Board, and many individual contributors. 

Concert tickets are available online (www.fremontsymphonyorchestra.org) and at the door for $15 per person, $30 per family, or $10 for students. The FSO may be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/fremontsymphonyorchestra.