Southern Delaware Orchestra to perform first concert with full ensemble
Southern Delaware Orchestra is approaching a weekend of many firsts.
SODELO will perform its first concert with a full symphonic orchestra of more than 70 musicians Aug. 10 and 11. In the two years since the orchestra was founded, it has nearly tripled in size from its original strings-only group of 25 to now include brass, woodwinds and percussion after auditions this past spring.
This will also be SODELO’s first time playing the same program twice in one weekend. The concert is themed Out of This World for exploring a variety of celestial-related music. The first half of the concert will feature classical music to the tunes of “Jupiter” and “Mars” from “The Planets” by Gustav Holst, and “Fanfare” from “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss, as heard in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The latter half will showcase familiar popular music from films like “Superman,” “Apollo 13,” “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial” to welcome the new instruments of the orchestra.
“What we’re really trying to do is get people excited and educated about what an orchestra can do and how that music is important and different from the other music that is readily available in the area,” said co-founder and Board President Steve Greifer. “But we are unique in being a local community orchestra.”
The upcoming concert is part of SODELO’s larger mission to reach all of southern Delaware. The Out of This World weekend will start at 3 p.m., Saturday, in Ocean View at Mariners Bethel Global Methodist Church, which will be the first time the orchestra is playing outside the Lewes and Rehoboth Beach area. SODELO will return to its old stomping grounds the following day, again at 3 p.m., to perform at Cape Henlopen High School, its largest venue yet.
SODELO is now on a search for other, larger venues to accommodate both its increasing number of musicians and audience size, Greifer said. The orchestra has sold out every concert it’s held since its founding in the spring of 2022, and it’s already sold more tickets for the upcoming concert than for any prior concert. SODELO is also always looking for more musicians at auditions, and volunteers to help with marketing, technology and ushering at events.
“Growing to be a full orchestra has been something that was in our bylaws in the beginning, but we never imagined that we would be able to do it this quickly,” Greifer said.
SODELO started when Greifer inquired on social media about interest in playing chamber music locally after he moved to Milton. Eva DelGallo, a Lewes violinist and retired school orchestra conductor, wanted to do even more than that. Greifer and DelGallo reached out to James Allen Anderson, the head of orchestral studies at the University of Delaware, who offered to direct the group.
“SODELO musicians are a community in and of ourselves,” Greifer said. “We’re serving the southern Delaware community, but we are a community too.”
Tickets are $25, and $10 for students. Tickets will be sold at the door and are on sale online at https://www.sodelomusic.org/events.
