COLUMBUS, Ohio — The New Albany Symphony Orchestra is soaring into the weekend with a pair of concerts celebrating the achievement of flight.
"The main piece is the piece called 'Flight' which is the history of the Wright Brothers," explained Luis Biava, the music director of the orchestra.
Written by composer Robert Xavier Rodrigues, "Flight: The Story of Wilbur and Orville Wright" debuted in the famous duo's hometown with the Dayton Philharmonic in 2003. It follows the story of the brothers as they dream of flight and experiment their way into the sky.
"They music starts itself with some sort of a mystery of how they're about to do it," said Biava. "They try working on a machine and it goes up and it goes down...the orchestra does all of these effects."
Helping to tell the story will be 10TV anchor Angela An lending her voice as the onstage narrator of the story.
"I think it's just a great piece that...really shows off the orchestra," said Biava.
In addition to "Flight," the orchestra will also be performing a John Williams piece from the classic film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" that soars as the movie's heroes' bikes lift into the air as they escape to safety with the titular alien.
Along with those pieces, the performance will also feature solos from young student concerto competition winners Alejandro Orta and Sonya Moomaw.
For Biava, the passion for orchestra runs in the family.
"My grandfather was a conductor, and my father was a conductor," he explained. "It's a big honor for me to have such a great orchestra. We have students, we have professionals, and community players and we have a lot of fun."
On Sunday, March 3, "The Story of Orville and Wilbur Wright" will take the stage of the McCoy Center at 3 p.m. Tickets for this show can be found at: https://newalbanysymphony.com/event/the-story-of-wilbur-and-orville-wright/