Alumni & Friends
Bethel Focus
A Magazine of Bethel University
Campus News
News of the Bethel Community
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Books Seasons in Benson Great Hall
Sunday, March 30, 2 p.m.
Bach’s Brandenburg No. 1
Sunday, May 25, 2 p.m.
Beethoven’s Triple Concerto
Sunday, June 8, 2 p.m.
Copland and Ives
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit SPCO’s website at www.thespco.org/.
By Nicolle Westlund ’09
In February, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) kicked off a Sunday afternoon concert series at Bethel’s Benson Great Hall. The four-concert series, concluding in June, is designed to be relaxing and inspiring as it features a mixture of composers and styles.
“To put it simply, having SPCO perform at Bethel is a big deal,” says Randy Hall, director of Auxiliary Services at Bethel. “SPCO is acclaimed as being one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. Having [this group] perform here augments the finest tradition of music excellence with all of [Bethel’s] performing groups within our outstanding music department.”
Even though SPCO currently performs at 11 venues in the Twin Cities—with the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts as its home venue—the musicians enjoy performing at Bethel. “The one repeating theme I hear from the orchestra is that they love performing in Benson Great Hall because of its outstanding acoustics,” says Hall.
“Bethel clearly thinks that SPCO is a good addition to the other wonderful programs it schedules in Benson Great Hall,” says Kelly Belich ’02, SPCO communications manager, “and we have been so pleased with the level of interest in us and commitment to us.”
SPCO has already booked Benson Great Hall for another concert series in the 2008-2009 season. “Our hope and expectation is that this partnership will continue,” said Hall. “I encourage everyone to support its concert series at Bethel to help ensure that it will be here for a long time.”