Blog – Page 2 – Venice Community Orchestra

Our New Home

For many years the VCO has rehearsed Saturday mornings at the Venice campus of the State College of Florida, and our schedule of rehearsals has been structured like a class, with thirteen meetings in the fall and spring semesters.

Starting summer 2019, we have the great good fortune of having a new home at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Venice.

This allows us to schedule our weekly rehearsals from September through April at a time that works best for our musicians, to join forces with the church’s own musicians for some Sunday services, and to schedule our own concerts in the church’s sanctuary, a space that is visually and acoustically beautiful.

Our New HomeVCOsuperadmin2019-09-19T21:37:41+00:00

Successful 2019 Spring Benefit Concert

Venice, Florida, May 2019 – The Venice Community Orchestra (VCO) performed its annual spring concert Wednesday April 10th at Venice Presbyterian Church.

This year’s concert raised $2,161 for Family Promise of South Sarasota County. In the last 5 years, The VCO has raised almost $10,000 for charities in our community.

All of this year’s selections were original arrangements by the group’s director, Bob Delfausse, or by Dave O’Fallon, a violist in the group.

This year’s featured soloists were extraordinary! Venice Presbyterian’s own Karen Romig played the final movement of Saverio Mercadente’s Concerto for Flute in E minor. Trumpeter Luca Stine, a local high school senior who is exceptional on violin as well as trumpet, played a jazz arrangement of two standards, “Willow, Weep for Me” and “What Is This Thing Called Love”.

The concert had a mix of great classical music (Purcell’s “Dido’s Lament,” Haydn’s Symphony No. 104, first mvt, four pieces from Schumann’s Songs Without Words, Mascagni’s famous Intermezzo) and great popular music (Leroy Anderson’s Blue Tango, Henry Mancini’s Lujon, Richard Rodgers’ Carousel).

View the concert in two parts via the YouTube links below;
Part 1: https://youtu.be/v_MSG8Z_Prg
Part 2: https://youtu.be/m0PhJnbZQxA

For more info call 518-523-3937 and speak with either Bob Delfausse or Ann Alton, or email them at altondelfausse@hotmail.com.

Successful 2019 Spring Benefit ConcertVCOsuperadmin2019-06-17T23:08:13+00:00

2019 Spring Benefit Concert

Venice, Florida, March 2019 – The Venice Community Orchestra (VCO) will be performing its annual spring concert at 7:00pm, Wednesday April 10th at Venice Presbyterian Church (825 The Rialto, Venice). Freewill donations will go to support the Family Promise of South Sarasota County ( www.familypromisessc.org ).

All of this year’s selections are original arrangements by the the group’s director, Bob Delfausse, or by Dave O’Fallon, a violist in the group.

Two soloists will be featured. Venice Presbyterian’s own Karen Romig will play the final movement of Saverio Mercadente’s Concerto for Flute in E minor. Trumpeter Luca Stine will play a jazz arrangement of two standards, “Willow, Weep for Me” and “What Is This Thing Called Love.” Luca is a local high school student who wins awards both on trumpet and violin.

The concert will be a mix of great classical music (Purcell’s “Dido’s Lament,” Haydn’s Symphony No. 104, first mvt, four pieces from Schumann’s Songs Without Words, Mascagni’s famous Intermezzo) and great popular music (Leroy Anderson’s Blue Tango, Henry Mancini’s Lujon, Richard Rodgers’ Carousel).

For more info call 518-523-3937 and speak with either Bob Delfausse or Ann Alton, or email them at altondelfausse@hotmail.com.

2019 Spring Benefit ConcertJohn Mabardi2019-06-17T22:52:59+00:00

2018 Spring Benefit Concert Complete Success!

Venice, Florida, August 6, 2018 – Message from Scot Deagan, Vice President & Events Coordinator -A heartfelt “thank you” to all of the audience members attending our 3rd annual Spring benefit concert on Wednesday, April 18th. Again this year, your “freewill” donations raised enough money to fund the St. Mark’s Outreach Ministry & Interfaith Outreach’s “Lunch Program”, for SIX months!

With this year’s total donations of $2,221, we have raised almost $7,500 for this worthy outreach program.

With performance pieces ranging from Arioso to Scailiana, from Jamaican Rumba to The King and I, there was much to enjoy!

Our guest soloists, Jack Gallahan (Concerto for Cello) and Luca Strine (Czardas, violin) were magnificent. Truly talented young gentleman.

As always, thank you to our VCO members and very talented professional “friends” who joined us. A special thanks to Bob Delfausse, Ann Alton and Dave O’Fallon, for the endless dedication to conducting, coaching and arranging music for us.

And finally, a debt of gratitude to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (performance venue) and Interfaith Outreach, Inc., for the opportunity to achieve our mission: “Practicing and playing music for our enjoyment, the enjoyment of others and in support of our community.”

2018 Spring Benefit Concert Complete Success!John Mabardi2019-06-17T22:53:07+00:00

Luca Stine – Youth Soloist – Violin

Venice, Florida, March 2018 – Venice Community Orchestras 2018 Spring Benefit Concert will be held Wednesday, April 18th at 6:30pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 508 Riviera St., on Venice Island.

Violinist Luca Stine will be a featured youth soloist, performing Vittorio Monti’s Czardas.

Luca Stine – Youth Soloist – ViolinJohn Mabardi2019-06-17T22:53:34+00:00

Jack Gallahan – Youth Soloist – Cello

Venice, Florida, March 2018 – Venice Community Orchestras 2018 Spring Benefit Concert will be held Wednesday, April 18th at 6:30pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 508 Riviera St., on Venice Island.

Jack Gallahan will be a featured youth soloists, performing Luigi Boccherini’s Concerto for Cello.

Jack Gallahan – Youth Soloist – CelloJohn Mabardi2019-06-17T22:53:49+00:00

2018 Spring Benefit Concert

Venice, Florida, March 2018 – Venice Community Orchestras 2018 Spring Benefit Concert will be held Wednesday, April 18th at 6:30pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 508 Riviera St., on Venice Island.

For the 3rd straight year, the VCO will have its end-of-season concert at 6:30 Wednesday, April 18 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Venice Island. Free will donations will go to the bag lunch program at the Center of Hope in Venice.

The program will include music by J.S. Bach, Robert Schumann, Ottorino Respighi, the Beatles, Boccherini, Arthur Benjamin, Leonard Bernstein, Vittorio Monti, and Riccardo Drigo.

Featured youth soloists will be Jack Gallahan, performing Luigi Boccherini’s Concerto for Cello and violinist Luca Stine, performing Vittorio Monti’s Czardas.

If you are interested in joining the VCO, no auditions are required. Just join us at one of our rehearsals or contact us via the website. We rehearse Saturday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30 at the Venice campus of the State College of Florida, Bldg 800 (Sarah H. Pappas Professional Development Center), 8000 Tamiami Tr., Venice, FL 34293.

2018 Spring Benefit ConcertJohn Mabardi2019-03-26T23:02:59+00:00

Venice Community Orchestra Looking to Grow

Venice, Florida, March 2018 – (Published in Venice Gondolier, Sarasota & North Port Herald Tribunes, March 2018)

The VCO was started in 2011 by a group of string players who simply wanted to get together to make music. Since then the orchestra has maintained this “amateur” motivation (to do for love), and it now includes an increasing number of professional musicians who also enjoy playing just for the love of it. The VCO is basically a string orchestra (violin 1 &2, viola, cello, double bass), and includes a pianist and a single flute. For the last three years the group has been led by Ann Alton (principal cellist of the Charlotte Symphony) and her husband, Bob Delfausse, who conducts and writes most of the arrangements. Bob takes music from both the classical and popular repertoires (J.S. Bach to the Beatles), and rewrites it to suit the VCO’s instrumentation.

Looking ahead to next year (Fall 2018), the group would like to grow in numbers while keeping its character as a friendly and noncompetitive chamber orchestra. We are playing and enjoying a gradually more challenging repertoire, and thus are hoping that more intermediate to advanced players will be able to join us. We suspect that there are many string players in the community who, given the right group with the right musical and interpersonal atmosphere, might want to join us. The aim is not to become a full symphony orchestra, but to achieve a large enough string sound so that we could add single winds to the group (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, French horn, trombone). We rehearse Saturday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30 at the Venice campus of the State College of Florida.

The VCO will have its end-of-season concert at 6:30 Wednesday, April 18 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Venice Island. Good will donations go to the bag lunch program at the Center of Hope in Venice. The program will include music by J.S. Bach, Robert Schumann, Ottorino Respighi, the Beatles, Boccherini, Arthur Benjamin, Leonard Bernstein, Vittorio Monti, and Riccardo Drigo. We hope that any and all string players who think they might want to join us next year will come and hear us.

Venice Community Orchestra Looking to GrowJohn Mabardi2019-09-19T21:34:22+00:00

2017 Spring Concert Update

Venice, Florida, May 2, 2017 – Message from Martin Himmelfarb, Vice Chair Interfaith Outreach and member of the VCO (Violin 2) – Our hard work paid off and not just musically. Despite the fact that many people had already returned north, our April 19, 2017 spring concert raised $2,356, enough to fund 5 months of the free lunch program for the profoundly needy at the Center of Hope. This was a huge success by all accounts and we have been booked in for next April 18 already. Nancy Simmonds (violin 2) told us that the Haley House benefit concert in early April raised $1,600. The level to which our playing raised the spirits of the guests at the Salvation Army and at the Holiday dinner and the folks at the SRQ airport was immeasurable. It was a great season and we look forward to our new season in the fall. Thank you all so very, very much. Our music making shows great purpose.

Here are three YouTube video clips from our concert:

2017 Spring Concert UpdateJohn Mabardi2018-08-06T17:21:55+00:00

2017 Spring Concert

Venice, Florida, April 12, 2017 Fourteen-year-old cellist Jack Gallahan will perform with the Venice Community Orchestra in a concert to benefit others at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Venice, FL.

A ninth grader at the Pine View School in Osprey, Gallahan will solo in Gabriel Faure’s Elegie Opus 24 on a gorgeous 300-year-old cello and join the orchestra in a concert of classical and pops favorites. Open to the public, the free concert will also include works by the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and highlights from the Broadway smash South Pacific.

Gallahan began studying music with piano lessons at the age of five. After joining his school orchestra, he re-focused his musical energies on the cello and began studying with Julliard artist Dr. Anne Alton. Recognizing the positive impact of music on the lives of others, he started a program called “Music for Medicine” and raised the money to purchase a baby grand piano for the lobby at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

In addition to playing cello with the Pine View Orchestra, Gallahan performs with the “Concert Crew,” a group of local students who spread the joy of music by playing concerts at local nursing homes and assisted living facilities. When not playing music, he leads a club that 3-D prints prosthetic hands for people in need, based out of the Suncoast Science Center. He also captains a local rocket club and participates in numerous mathematics competitions. He hopes to study music and mathematics in college.

The Venice Community Orchestra, led by professional music performers and educators Bob Delfausse and Ann Alton, is comprised of dedicated amateur musicians who enjoy playing classics and pops together for charitable causes. They are assisted by professional musicians who have generously donated their talents and time to sit in and perform at the concert.

Although admission to the concert is free, donations will be requested to support the bag-lunch program of Interfaith Outreach, which provides over one hundred free lunches each week year round to those in South Sarasota County who need a helping hand.

Interfaith Outreach, a charitable organization, coordinates the distribution of free food for nearly 100,000 meals and snacks a year in the Venice area through four programs: BackPack Kids in conjunction with the All Faiths Food Bank, weekly community dinners that rotate among four churches, the bag-lunch program and in the winter a cold weather shelter.

The concert is at 6:30 pm, Wednesday, April 19. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 508 Riviera St., Venice Island. No need for tickets. Just come and enjoy the music and kindly make a freewill donation to pay for the lunches. For more information, call St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 508 Riviera St., Venice Island, at 941-488-7714 or Martin Himmelfarb at 941-244-2061.

Concert Poster
Click to enlarge

Jack Gallahan will perform April 19 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Venice to raise funds for Interfaith Outreach’s bag-lunch program for the needy of South Sarasota County.

2017 Spring ConcertJohn Mabardi2019-03-26T22:42:45+00:00