Bonners Ferry Community Orchestra performs “A bit of Mischief”

The Bonners Ferry Community Orchestra will perform its spring concert, “A Bit of Mischief” at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 18, at Becker Auditorium at Bonners Ferry High School. 

The concert will feature a family-friendly program of orchestral works selected to highlight rhythmic, humorous and thematic variety, organizers said. Admission is free, and donations to support the orchestra will be accepted. 

Among the works set to performed are “Peer Gynt Suite,” a suite of melodies by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, “Bugler’s Holiday and The Typewriter,” two pieces by Leroy Anderson. The first one features the orchestra’s trumpet section. In the second one, the orchestra’s conductor, Glenda Novinger, will “play” an old manual typewriter that clicks and dings.  

Also slated to be performed are “Glenn Miller in Concert,” a medley of swing tunes from the World War II and the post-war era, including “In the Mood,” “Tuxedo Junction,” “A String of Pearls,” “Little Brown Jug,” and “Pennsylvania 6-5000.” In addition, “Summer Dances,” a piece by Brian Balmages, and “Yakety Sax,” written by James Q. "Spider" Rich and Homer "Boots" Randolph III in the 1960s, are on the playlist. Randolph was inspired by a saxophone solo played on The Coasters' 1958 recording of the Leiber and Stoller song "Yakety Yak". In the United Kingdom, comedian Benny Hill later made it more widely known as the closing theme music of “The Benny Hill Show.” 

Also on tap to be played are “Surprise Symphony,” a piece by classical composer Joseph Haydn that was first performed in London in 1792, and “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Louis Prima, who first recorded the song with his New Orleans Gang in 1936. The song gained popularity in the big band and swing eras, including famously as an instrumental piece by Benny Goodman. 

“Palladio,” a composition for string orchestra by Karl Jenkins, completed in 1995. The piece was inspired by the sixteenth-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), whose work embodies the Renaissance celebration of harmony and order. 

The Bonners Ferry Community Orchestra is a volunteer ensemble composed of musicians from Boundary and Bonner counties in Idaho, as well as Troy and Libby in Montana.