The Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra (GNSO) will capture birds in flight musically in a concert on Saturday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Aquinas Hall on the Mount Saint Mary College campus in Newburgh.

“Wings Unfurled,” under the direction of Maestro Russell Ger, will feature the works of five composers portraying the aerial adventures of winged creatures. “Birds have long fascinated composers because they are the most musical of all animals,” Mr. Ger said. “After all, we refer to their communications as ‘song.’”

“Respighi’s suite, ‘The Birds’, evokes the olde worlde with source material being drawn from 18th century Baroque dances,” Mr. Ger continued. “By contrast, the Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu writes an exquisite elegy to modernity: ‘I see a sky with transparent birds. With sad eyes they quietly look down on the human beings crawling around in an artificial forest below them.’”

“Lending yet another perspective,”. Ger noted, “the South American composer Efrain Amaya uses the pulsating rhythms of his native Venezuela to depict the kinetic energy of birds restlessly swooping and diving. And to conclude, both the Scandinavian Rautavaara (in “Cantus Arcticus”) and C American Tan Dun (in “Secret of the Wind and Birds”) weave actual recordings of birdsong into their works.”

Tickets – Balcony $50, Reserved $40, Open $35, Senior Citizen $25 – can be purchased online or at the door. Call 845/913-7157 or visit newburghsymphony.org. Students are admitted free to open seating area only.