The Ukiah Symphony Orchestra opens its 2018-19 season with playful panache with a Big Band-themed concert, “Kick Off Your Shoes!” The concert reunites popular local songstress Roseanne Wetzel with Bay Area crooner Pedro Rodelas.
The two will engage in a celebration of an important part of the Great American Songbook, bringing to life popular music of the 1930s and 40s when the Big Band era was at its height. The orchestra will be well-prepared for the occasion, with conductor Les Pfutzenreuter increasing the brass section (saxophones, trumpets, and trombones) and providing prominent roles for piano, bass, drums and guitar. Rodelas will sing in the style of crooners such as Gene Kelly, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and others. Trained as an opera singer, Rodelas enjoys the playfulness and lightness of mood that Big Band music conveys so well. “I get to sing in my natural voice–more like Pedro as opposed to an opera singer,” he says of the crooner persona. He will join Wetzel, a veteran of musical theater in the Ukiah area. Since her childhood watching old musicals on TV, Wetzel has loved Big Band music, commenting, “I’m looking forward to getting into the swing of it with Pedro.”
Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for seniors age 65 and up, and free for ASB card holders and everyone under 18. Tickets are available at the Mendocino Book Company at 102 S. School St. in Ukiah or online at www.ukiahsymphony.org. Season tickets, which provide four tickets for the cost of three, are also available online.
Phone: 707-462-0236
2018/09/08 - 2018/09/08
Mendocino College Center Theatre
1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah, CA 95482