Washington University Symphony Orchestra in concert Feb. 19

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will perform music of Ernest Bloch, Peter I. Tchaikovsky and Gay Holmes Spears at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, in Graham Chapel.

The performance is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences. Graham Chapel is located immediately north of the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-4841 or email staylor@wustl.edu.

Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator for the Department of Music, conducts the 70-plus-member orchestra. The program opens with Tchaikovsky’s colorful Capriccio italien and also features the Concerto grosso No. 1 by the Swiss-American Bloch (1880-1959). The latter work, written in 1925, mixes the modern piano and the concerto grosso, a genre typically employed for string orchestra and popular in the Baroque era. This compelling, anachronistic instrumentation helped bring the piece frequent performances throughout the middle part of the 20th century.

Pianist for the concerto grosso is Mark Tollefsen, a junior in Arts & Sciences studying piano with Seth Carlin, professor of music. Tollefsen was soloist with the orchestra as a sophomore and also has appeared as soloist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He was a finalist in the Stravinsky International Piano Competition and placed third in the Music Teacher’s National Association, Midwest Regional Competition. He is a resident of St. Louis and son of Douglas M. Tollefsen, professor of medicine.

Also on the program is Where the River’s Run by St. Louis composer Gay Holmes Spears. Spears has taught at Webster University and other area colleges, and has written commissions for several area churches.