Cayambis Sinfonietta Concert

Internationally Acclaimed Conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor to Guest Conduct the Cayambis Sinfonietta

Blacksburg, VA: The internationally acclaimed Uruguayan-American-Israeli conductor, Gisèle Ben-Dor, will guest conduct the Cayambis Sinfonietta at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 16, at the Hillel Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Ben-Dor made her conducting debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Since that time, she has served as the music director of the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra and the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. She has also led orchestras in Europe, Australia and South America. A champion of Latin American music, she is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest and most dedicated exponents of this repertoire.

Founded in 2022, and unlike almost any other US-based ensemble, the concert programs of the Cayambis Sinfonietta present an exciting journey through some of the best instrumental music that the American hemisphere has to offer. Across the eight pieces that make up its October 16 program, the Sinfonietta will demonstrate its remarkable versatility by performing a representative cross section of our hemisphere’s most important musical styles over the past one hundred and fifty years, including an Italianate opera overture from Brazil, symphonic poems from Chile and Uruguay, and a late Romantic concert overture from the United States. The program will also feature the world premiere performance of a work composed for the ensemble by Venezuelan composer Josefina Benedetti.

The seventeen-member professional chamber orchestra is made up of some of the area’s finest musicians, including clarinetist Sarunas Jankauskas, violinist Charley Shafer, and percussionist Al Wojtera. The ensemble is led by music director Dr. John L. Walker.

General admission tickets for the October 16 concert can be purchased in advance by going to http://www.cilasim.org/sinfonietta-concert-tickets-s/168.htm or by calling (540) 553-0564.