BY WESLEY SCHULZ

On April 18 and 19, 2015 the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra and Bainbridge Performing Arts are teaming up in celebration of music inspired by the Bard.

For these performances the orchestra will perform works from the classical canon that are related to Shakespeare. Tom Challinor, director of The BPA Shakespeare Society, will perform in between musical selections with prose from the great comedies and tragedies. This collaboration is wonderfully natural for our two organizations. Not only because we share the same performance space at Bainbridge Performing Arts but also because music and Shakespeare are one and the same.

Shakespeare constantly uses music as a literary device in his prose. In The Merchant of Venice he writes, “How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music, Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night, Become the touches of sweet harmony.”

In other places he compares unsavory character traits to out-of-tune music.

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare writes, “It is the lark that sings so out of tune, Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.”

But live music is also an important part of Shakespeare’s plays: it is employed on stage for banquets and processions, to induce a character to sleep or fall in love, and also to create an atmosphere or tone. Although most of the music used during Shakespeare’s time is unrecorded or lost we know that it followed the popular music of the period.

For the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra’s concert I have chosen music inspired by Shakespeare but that which was meant for the concert hall rather than the playhouse. There was no dearth of music to choose from; in fact, the biggest challenge was deciding what not to perform! Composers have fashioned operas (numbering around 200), ballets, and film scores as well as programmatic concert pieces using the Bard’s work. Romeo and Juliet alone inspired composers such as Berlioz, Gounod, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Bernstein. The latter two are on the BSO program with the Fantasy Overture by Tchaikovsky and the overture to West Side Story by Bernstein. Mendelssohn was one of the first great composers inspired by Shakespeare. Three selections from his Midsummer Night’s Dream will be featured including the perennial Wedding March. Other works include Beethoven’s Coriolanus Overture with the Bainbridge Island Youth Orchestra in a side-by-side plus Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor overture.

If all of this fantastic Shakespearian music and prose isn’t enough for you, then come to hear our spectacular young soloists: the winner and runner-up of the 2015 Young Artist Competition.

Andrew Barnwell, 17, is the winner of the competition and will perform the first movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor.

Runner-up Shintaro Taneda, 13, will dazzle with the first movement of Lalo’s work for violin and orchestra, Symphonie espagnole. Music IS the food of love and we will certainly play on!

Program details

On April 18-19, Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra presents “Shakespeare: Comedy and Tragedy with The BPA Shakespeare Society”

Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra collaborates for the first time with The BPA Shakespeare Society and director Tom Challinor in a concert featuring music and drama drawn from and inspired by the works of The Bard.

Additionally, the program will showcase the BSO’s first place Young Artist Concerto Competition Winner Andrew Barnwell performing the 1st movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor and Competition Runner Up Shintaro Taneda performing Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, 1st movement, plus the Senior Orchestra from the Bainbridge Island Youth Orchestra in a side-by-side performance.

Sponsor: Wicklund Dental | Supporter: Fletcher Bay Foundation.

Performances: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18 and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 19 (a pre-concert chat is 2:15 p.m. Sunday).

Tickets: $19 for adults, and $16 for seniors, students, military and teachers; each youth receives free admission when accompanied by a paying adult at 206-842-8569 or www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org.

Wesley Schulz is music director and conductor of the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra.