Gazebo concert features city orchestras

Madison City Community Orchestra will perform at the Madison Gazebo Concert on July 2. (CONTRIBUTED)

Madison City Youth Orchestra will perform at the Madison Gazebo Concert on July 2. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – As a prelude to the Fourth of July, concertgoers will enjoy a musical double feature at the Madison Gazebo Concert on July 2 at 6:30 p.m.

The Madison City Youth Orchestra and the Madison City Community Orchestra will perform. The event will flashback nostalgically to the early 1900s, when hometown America gathered on the town square to hear their neighbors playing instrumental music.

Madison City Youth Orchestra’s members are area students ranging from five to 20 years old. The young musicians rehearse and perform in a full-orchestra setting.

Conductors William and Rebecca Wortham welcome visitors to a full program of patriotic and folk music. Their program includes “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “America,” “Yankee Doodle Boy,” “Grand Old Flag,” “Armed Forces Tribute,” “Turkey in the Straw” and “‘Bile Them’ Cabbage Down.”

Assistant conductors are Dean Gardner, Catherine Perry, Scott Ripplinger and David Verin.

Madison City Youth Orchestra’s instrumentation varies from violins and cellos to saxophones and tubas. They perform all music genres — from classical to Broadway and holiday favorites. For more information, visit madisoncityyouthorchestra.com.

Madison Arts Council sponsors the free, family-friendly concerts on Front Street on Thursday evenings during summer.

Madison City Community Orchestra organized in 2010 as a small 10-member orchestra at Madison United Methodist Church. Sandy Weisner serves as director.

Membership has grown rapidly, and the orchestra presented its inaugural concert in May. They played excerpts from musicals by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, among others.

Their entertaining repertoire offers songs from “Les Miserables,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Nutcracker,” “My Fair Lady,” “West Side Story,” “Harry’s Wondrous World” and “An American in Paris.”

High school juniors and older with 3-4 years of experience can join Madison City Community Orchestra. For more information, visit their Facebook page.

In addition, students with Musicology School of Music are schedule to perform.

For information about Madison Arts Council, visit artsmadison.org.