The Ozark Festival Orchestra will open its 44th season at 3 p.m. on Oct. 15, at the Monett High School Performing Arts Center.
The orchestra, comprised of mostly Barry and Lawrence County residents, will start the season with “Hello, Monett,” a concert of favorite classical pieces to introduce new music director Carla Wootton.
Wootton taught in public schools from 1990-2017, played substitute flute with the Springfield Symphony since 1990, and served as music director and pit musician for the Springfield Little Theatre from 1993 to 2023.
Performing in the concert will be multiple member of the Oliphant family, of Cassville. Moira Oliphant plays viola, David Oliphant is on trumpet and Michele Oliphant and Katherine Oliphant are in the second violin section.
Other Barry County residents performing include LeAna Colf, of Seligman, principal flute for the OFO; longtime player and first violinist Sarah Willson, of Purdy; Nancy Hitchcock, of Eagle Rock, on French horn; and Holly Thompson, of Eagle Rock, on trumpet.
The concert will feature the beloved Trumpet Concerto by Haydn, featuring Tim Wootton as solo trumpeter. In addition, the orchestra will play Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Jean Sibelius’s patriotic tone poem of struggle, “Finlandia,” and Gustav Holst’s “Military Suite No. 2,” combining a number of well-known English melodies.
Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, and children high school age and under are free. The performing arts center is located on the north side of Monett High School, at 1 David Sippy Drive in Monett, west of the the Price Cutter supermarket at Bridle Lane and East Cleveland Avenue.
The OFO will continue its season with its holiday concert on Dec. 3 at the performing arts center.
The OFO is a community orchestra composed of players from southwest Missouri and nearby towns, focusing primarily on classical music.
The orchestra is a 501(c)3 notfor- profit organization supported by sponsors, memberships, local foundations, ads in the orchestra program book and funds managed by the Monett Community Foundation.
