LIMA — The audience was full of families with excited kids as the lights at Veterans Memorial Civic Center dimmed Sunday and the Lima Symphony Orchestra began its program with John Williams’ “Star Wars” main theme.
Sunday’s program was a joint affair between the orchestra and Wapakoneta’s Armstrong Air and Space Museum.
After the opening piece, Andrew Crust, conductor of the orchestra, engaged with the audience, asking questions about space and Wapakoneta native Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
Crust shared that Armstrong was a musician, playing the euphonium and several other brass instruments growing up. While they began the next piece, John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, a screen above the stage played a slideshow of photographs of Armstrong. The visuals were done by Modo Media of Lima.
The concert had a special appearance via video of Logan Rex, the curator of the Armstrong Air and Space Museum, with a puppet named Wyatt Green. Crust interacted with Rex and Green to help tie the theme of the concert to space education and history. The puppetry was done by Chad Hughes. Children learned facts about Neil Armstrong, ranging from underwear the astronauts wore to the plane in which Armstrong got his pilot’s license at age 16.
The event featured a special performance by a ukulele group from Heritage Elementary School, directed by Crystal Miller. The group of second through fourth graders took to the stage and performed a staccato arrangement on their ukuleles and the song Blue Moon of Kentucky.
The symphony also performed Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, Finale, which was a special piece because Armstrong brought a cassette tape of it along with him on the Apollo 11 mission. John Williams’ “Summon the Heroes” was played with a slideshow and video of the celebrations that took place all over the world upon the return of Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins from the moon in 1969. The concert closed with Ferde Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite: Sunrise” to a video of scenes of nature, the Earth from space and the history of NASA.
Miller said the students met for about 15 minutes daily since January to prepare for the performance. It was the first time they had done this, and Miller hoped that the orchestra would have them back.
Miller said that the experience was “awesome,” and that the students were “excited for the opportunity to perform with a professional group.”
Crust also stressed the importance of young people dedicating themselves to music, engineering and science.
Sunday’s program was underwritten by Webb Insurance Agency. The final event of the Lima Symphony Orchestra’s 2021-2022 season is 7:30 p.m. April 9, performing grand opera choruses from Tchaikovsky, Verdi and more.
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