Quad City Symphony Orchestra Masterworks IV: “The Stars Above & Sands Below,” February 3 and 4

Saturday, February 3, 7:30 p.m.

Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA

Sunday, February 4, 2 p.m.

Augustana College's Centennial Hall, 3703 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL

Thrilling pieces by Beethoven, Haydn, and other noted composers will be the focus of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's fourth Masterworks concerts of the 2023-24 season, with The Stars Above & Sands Below, on February 3 and 4, treating guests at Davenport's Adler Theatre Rock Island's Augustana College to musical majesty courtesy of the gifted instrumentalists and longtime QCSO Maestro Mark Russell Smith.

The creation of Heaven and Earth opens the orchestra's homage to the natural wonders that surround us in Franz Joseph Haydn’s “The Depiction of Chaos” from The Creation. After taking in the beauty and peace of space, music lovers are then invited to feel the gritty grains of sand shifting through their fingers in composer Mary Howe’s Stars & Sand. Audiences will then be swept away by the cascading scenes of Michael Abel’s Liquify, featuring the premiere of KV 265’s accompanying film that fuses science and art. And this latest Masterworks journey concludes with a stroll through the countryside on an unexpectedly stormy day in Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Pastorale” Symphony.

Leading the Quad City Symphony Orchestra in its two latest Masterworks concerts is the ensemble's conductor Mark Russell Smith, who has been music director and conductor for the symphony since 2008. Smith grew up in a musical family in Phoenix, Arizona where he began the serious study of conducting while still in his teens. He is a graduate in cello performance of the Juilliard School, where he studied with Claus Adam, and of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied conducting with Max Rudolf and Otto-Werner Mueller. While at Curtis, Smith was first-prize winner in the National Repertory Orchestra Conductors Competition, and upon graduation, was named Assistant Conductor of the Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Singers. From 1989 to 1994, Smith served as Associate Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and from 1992 through 1999 served as Music Director of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra. His dynamic personality, creative programming, and focus on outreach helped revitalize the Springfield (MA) Symphony, where he served as Music Director from 1995 through 2000. Recent projects include appearances with the Joffrey Ballet, conducting Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring as part of a larger exploration of that work commemorating its 100th anniversary, and Smith also served as Music Director and Conductor of the Richmond Symphony from 1999 to 2009.

Masterworks IV: The Stars Above & Sands Below performances will be held at Davenport's Adler Theatre on February 3 at 7:30 p.m., and, in Rock Island, at Augustana College's Centennial Hall on February 4 at 2 p.m. One hour prior to each performance, concert-goers are invited to attend informational "Concert Conversations" to learn about the works on the program, and admission to the concert events starts at $12 for adults and $7 for students and children. For more information and tickets, contact the Quad City Symphony Orchestra at (563)322-0931 and visit QCSO.org.