“A happy collaboration of composer, soloist and orchestra will come to fruition on Saturday when the Central Ohio Symphony closes its 35th season with a concert at Ohio Wesleyan University,” writes Bill Mayr in Thursday’s (5/1) Columbus Dispatch. “In recent years, the symphony has commissioned works from Ohio composers and featured Ohio guest soloists. The pattern will continue when northern Ohio violinist Ioana Galu plays the premiere of The Book of Hours by Marilyn Shrude, a distinguished artist professor at Bowling Green State University. Six other orchestras joined in the commissioning of Shrude, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship winner.… Galu served as concertmaster of the Central Ohio Symphony from 2006 to 2009. ‘Ioana was the steam behind the whole project,’ Shrude said. ‘She went to the Central Ohio Symphony because she had worked with them before and knew the conductor (Jaime Morales-Matos) and posed the idea to them.’ … [Galu] has an artist diploma from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music. She teaches at Heidelberg University in Tiffin and has kept her ties to the Central Ohio Symphony. ‘I love that symphony. They are like my family,’ she said. ‘Warren Hyer (executive director) and the orchestra have really supported me.’ ”
Posted May 1, 2014
