The Atlanta Chamber Players (ACP) will open their 32nd season in a celebrated return to Spivey Hall on Sunday, October 21 at 3 p.m.

Their program, “Songs America Loves to Sing,” features a musical collection of traditional American tunes arranged in new settings by Pulitzer prize-winning composer John Harbison and also celebrates the release of the group’s latest CD under the same title. Familiar American tunes, hymns and anthems, written for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, alternately showcase each of the five instruments in solos and canons spotlighting pieces ranging from “Amazing Grace” to jazzy “St. Louis Blues.”

Since ACP’s world-premiere of “Songs America Loves to Sing” at Emory University's Schwartz Center in 2004, they have performed the work in Paris and Rome to audience and media accolades. The ensemble’s founder, pianist and artistic director, Fayette County resident, Paula Peace stated, “We are eager to present John Harbison’s amazing collection of ‘Songs’ to our Spivey Hall audience this season, especially given its reception abroad last year and the release of our CD this spring. We are also thrilled to bring together some of Atlanta’s finest classical musicians in the extraordinary concert setting of Spivey Hall.”

The afternoon concert begins with Mozart’s “Quartet for Oboe & Strings in F Major,” and marks the Atlanta chamber music debut of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s (ASO) new principal oboist Elizabeth Koch. Joining ACP for his second-season performance with the ensemble is ASO assistant concertmaster Justin Bruns on violin. Other ASO performers include Laura Ardan, clarinet; Christina Smith, flute; Catherine Lynn, viola; and Brad Richie, cello. Concluding the program is one of the ACP’s audience favorites, Gabriel Faure’s brilliant and romantic “C Minor Piano Quartet.”

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at www.spiveyhall.org or box office at 678-466-4200. For more information on the Atlanta Chamber Players, visit their website at www.atlantachamberplayers.com.

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