Jan 24, 2025

St. Joseph Symphony Minis return Sunday featuring flutist Lory Lacy

Posted Jan 24, 2025 5:18 PM
Principal flutist for the St. Joseph Symphony Lory Lacy will lead a quartet during a chamber concert Sunday at Ashland United Methodist/ Photo courtesy of St. Joseph Symphony
Principal flutist for the St. Joseph Symphony Lory Lacy will lead a quartet during a chamber concert Sunday at Ashland United Methodist/ Photo courtesy of St. Joseph Symphony

By MATT PIKE

St. Joseph Post

The St. Joseph Symphony's series of chamber concerts, titled "Symphony Minis" returns this weekend, led by principal flute player Lory Lacy.

Lacy says a chamber concert is a smaller and more intimate concert, this one being a quartet that leans modern, but not too modern.

"We start out with a high classical piece and then everything after that is pretty much 20th and 21st century with some romantic stuff involved," Lacy tells guest host of the KFEQ hotline Barry Birr. "So, it's lush in its orchestration and it's just got a really beautiful flow to it, in my opinion."

Lacy will be joined by other members of the St. Joseph Symphony, Rob Patterson on the violin, Dana Woolard on cello, and JiWon Choi on piano.

Lacy says one piece the quartet will perform is a piece that was given to her by another flute player during a trip she took to Russia with the Peabody Institute, called Two Flutes

"We're playing it with flute and violin, but that was in 1987, and it was one of those things where you felt like all the barriers were dropped between the countries, because the politics didn't matter it was about making music," Lacy explains. "And she wrote an inscription on there in Russian and English saying that she hoped someday we would be able to play it together, and that hasn't happened yet, but it doesn't mean it couldn't."

Another one of the pieces was written by Lacy. Lacy says she wrote the piece in honor of a former cello player with the symphony, who died last year.

"She died to early, I started the piece for my cellist friend Dana, whose playing in the concert, and I finished it for my friend Amy Wiegand-Harris, so I'm dedicating it to her," Lacy says. "I have just started writing chamber music in the last couple years and I enjoy it so much because I get to write for people I know personally."

The concert will happen on Sunday at Ashland United Methodist Church. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased on the symphony website.

You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.