The Memory of Melodies
The Lowell Chamber Orchestra presents *The Memory of Melodies*, a concert built around the lasting power of memorable musical ideas. The program moves from Bach’s lyrical and dramatic keyboard concerto through contemporary works for strings and solo instruments, concluding with Respighi’s richly orchestrated revival of Renaissance and Baroque dance music. The concert is part of Middlesex Community College’s “A World of Music” Concert Series.
Featured soloists and musicians include pianist Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta, guitarist and composer Apostolos Paraskevas, flutist Wei Zhao, and violinist Krista Buckland Reisner. The program also includes the winning composition from the Lowell Chamber Orchestra’s 2026 Call-for-Scores.
When: Sunday, November 22, 2026
Showtimes: 3:00 PM–4:00 PM
Program: J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056; Apostolos Paraskevas’s *A Night with the Aristocrats*; Lansing McLoskey’s *I Heard the Children Singing*; and Ottorino Respighi’s *Antiche arie e danze*, Suite No. 3, P. 172.
Featured soloists: Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta, solo piano; Apostolos Paraskevas, guitar; Wei Zhao, flute; and Krista Buckland Reisner, violin.
J.S. Bach: The F-minor keyboard concerto combines energetic outer movements with a serene central movement. Written during Bach’s Leipzig period in the 1730s and possibly adapted from an earlier violin concerto, the work sets the soloist in lively conversation with the orchestra before arriving at its famous, introspective slow melody.
Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta: Rodríguez-Peralta chairs the Music Department at Middlesex Community College and directs its “A World of Music” Concert Series. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Peru, and Mexico, including two solo recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall. Her work includes lecture recitals on Latin American music, premieres of music by New England composers, and recordings such as *Teresa Carreño: Solo Piano and Chamber Works*, *Music for Cello and Piano from Latin America*, *A Peruvian Sojourn*, and *Larry Bell: Preludes and Fugues*. She earned a Post-Graduate Diploma from The Juilliard School.
Apostolos Paraskevas: A classical guitarist and composer as well as an award-winning film director and producer, Paraskevas has received multiple international composition awards and a Grammy nomination. He is noted as the only guitarist to have had a major orchestral work performed at Carnegie Hall under Lukas Foss’s direction. His music draws variously on his Greek heritage, tonal regions, and concise motifs shaped by everyday or programmatic ideas.
A Night with the Aristocrats: Paraskevas’s work began with a guitar part inspired by one of his guitar studies and was later expanded for guitar, flute, and string orchestra. It opens meditatively, develops into a dance-like exchange among the instruments, and then turns toward a reflective flute solo that returns like an unanswered question. The strings act as a major supporting force throughout the arrangement.
Wei Zhao: The Chinese flutist has won two professional-level soloist competitions in China and has participated in the Prague Spring International Music Festival competition. Her orchestral experience includes work as principal flute and performances with ensembles connected to the Central Conservatory of Music, the National Ballet of Moscow, the China Film Philharmonic, the Peking Sinfonietta, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts. She has also performed with musicians including Daniel Barenboim, Seiji Ozawa, and Plácido Domingo, and took part in a 2008 performance of music by Tan Dun presented throughout China during the Olympic period.
Lansing McLoskey: McLoskey is a professor of music composition at the Frost School of Music and an internationally recognized composer. His early musical background was rooted in punk rock, where he wrote songs and played guitar in San Francisco bands before turning toward classical composition.
I Heard the Children Singing: The 2026 Lowell Chamber Orchestra Call-for-Scores winner is a four-movement concerto for violin and orchestra. Inspired by the 1892 hymn “The Holy City,” the work begins with a violin descending from its highest register against turbulent orchestral writing. A frantic scherzo follows, while the final movement develops a lyrical orchestral melody that is eventually taken up by the soloist before the work reaches a full, energetic ensemble conclusion.
Krista Buckland Reisner: A Boston-based violinist, violist, and nyckelharpa player, Buckland Reisner performs across classical, early, contemporary, and folk traditions. She trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of Toronto, and Mannes College of Music, and has worked with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, the Canadian Opera Company, the Boston Pops, and Worcester Chamber Music Society. She performs on both modern and period instruments and is particularly interested in connections between Baroque practice, contemporary music, and Scandinavian folk repertoire.
Ottorino Respighi: *Antiche arie e danze*, Suite No. 3, adapts Renaissance and Baroque music for modern string orchestra. The suite opens with the graceful anonymous melody “Italiana,” continues with seven short court airs by Jean-Baptiste Besard, includes an anonymous “Siciliana” with lilting dance rhythms, and closes with Ludovico Roncalli’s lively “Passacaglia.” Respighi’s orchestration preserves the character of the older music while giving it a lush, expressive modern setting.
Run time: The listing schedules the concert for approximately one hour.
Tickets: Price not available
Venue: Richard and Nancy Donahue Academic Arts Center
Address: 240 Central Street, Lowell, MA 01852
Series: Middlesex Community College’s “A World of Music” Concert Series
Presenter: The Lowell Chamber Orchestra, a component fund supported by the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.