The Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes has titled its holiday program “Timeless Traditions,” then gone ahead and included a world premiere. That apparent contradiction is actually a fair description of what conductor Toshiyuki Shimada has built at the OSFL: an organization that takes the inherited repertoire seriously and still makes room for what has not been heard before.
About the Show
The Dec. 12 program at Clemens Center brings together the full Orchestra and the Chorus of the Southern Finger Lakes for an afternoon of seasonal and sacred repertoire spanning several centuries. Works by John Rutter, Bach/Gounod, Schubert, and Handel anchor the first half. Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker selections carry their familiar weight, while Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves earns its place not as seasonal wallpaper but as one of the more quietly affecting pieces in the holiday canon. A world premiere composition by Avner Finberg also appears on the first-half program.
After intermission, the concert turns participatory: audience sing-alongs with favorite holiday music, Anderson’s Sleigh Ride among them. The OSFL describes the afternoon not as a performance to be watched but as “a celebration we create together,” and the programming makes that invitation literal. A post-concert “Afterglow” social follows.
Shimada has led the OSFL since 2009, coming to Elmira from Yale University after two decades as music director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. His collaborative history includes artists from Itzhak Perlman and Hilary Hahn to Joshua Bell and Emanuel Ax, and that range informs how the OSFL programs each season. The organization was founded in 1995 through the merger of the Corning Philharmonic Society and the Elmira Symphony and Choral Society, and operates as the only year-round professional symphonic orchestra serving the Southern Tier.
Venue & Logistics
The Clemens Center in Elmira seats 1,652. For a combined orchestra-and-chorus program of this scope, that scale matters: the hall gives the full sound of the OSFL and the Chorus the space to land properly. The show begins at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 12.
Tickets
Adult tickets are priced at $59, $44, or $29 depending on seating tier. College students with a valid ID pay $15. Youth under 18 attend free with a ticketed adult, courtesy of the Anderson Foundation. Processing and facility maintenance fees apply. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 11:30 a.m. Buy tickets.