Photos: Connor McCourtney

On Tuesday night, notes from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” could be heard escaping Sheslow Auditorium. The Drake Symphony Orchestra had a concert of only three songs, but lasted about an hour and a half.

Joseph Giunta stepped in as conductor for Akira Mori, assistant professor of music, who was ill. Giunta is the music director of the Des Moines Symphony.

“Being able to work with him was a really cool experience,” Katie Vergosen said of Giunta. She’d heard of him previously because of his experience of being the conductor. Despite the last-minute changes, she thought it went well.

Sarah Plum, assistant professor of violin and viola, was the soloist of the night. She played “Spring” from “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi.
“She’s an incredibly phenomenal violin player,” Vergosen said.

Violinist Daniel Park also thought Plum did well.

“Dr. Plum is a really good performer, so she did great,” he said.

Other songs performed were “Overture to Music” for the Royal Fireworks by George Friedrich Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chorale Prelude “Wachtet auf, ruft uns die Stimmer” and Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 43 by Jean Sibelius.

The orchestra practices together twice a week for two hours each, Park said.

“I practice everyday,” Vergosen said. “I probably play at least two hours every day. I would say that’s probably a minimum for sure.”

“I thought that concert went pretty well for the most part,” Park said. “Obviously we could’ve done better, but with the circumstances, with Professor Mori being sick and Giunta taking over, I thought it went pretty well.”

The Drake Symphony Orchestra will have another concert  May 3.