(Credit: http://www.chamberorchestra.org)

By Melony Roy

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia presents “American Masters” in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater on December 16th and 17th.

“We wanted to focus on very important American composers, one, and then secondly, this is also a program where we feature two of our own musicians: Geoffrey Deemer, who is a principal oboe who will play English horn in this program, and then our principal trumpet, Rodney Mack,” says Executive Director Peter Gistelinck.

On the program is music from two Curtis Institute of Music grads, Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland.

“We have chosen four works that are not performed too often – Aaron Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring,’ but we play in the original version for 13 instruments, and we play the ‘Serenade’ which is the Op. 1 of Samuel Barber, a work that he had written in 1928. We also play a pretty interesting work of George Gershwin’s called ‘Lullaby,’” Gistelinck explains.

For more information or to buy tickets, visit: www.kimmelcenter.org