College Dean Realizes Musician's Dream in Carnegie Hall Appearance

Published 04.23.2014

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School of Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies News

Conductor Sandra Dackow leads the Hershey Symphony Orchestra, including timpanist Colin W. Williamson (right).The orchestra's role in the "Bridges to the Future" concert is noted on a poster outside.Williamson (behind the timpani at center background) joins his colleagues on stage in Carnegie Hall's 2,800-seat Isaac Stern Auditorium.The orchestra got a heroes' sendoff at Hersheypark, a standing ovation at the end of its performance and this scrolling welcome (beneath some familiar logos) in Times Square.The audience, which filled the main floor and first two tiers, rises to register approval.One of the world's most acoustically perfect concert venues produced one of the most perfectly memorable nights for Penn College's dean of transportation and natural resources technologies on Tuesday. Colin W. Williamson, whose percussionist skills were profiled in the Spring 2012 One College Avenue and related YouTube video, performed with the Hershey Symphony Orchestra at historic Carnegie Hall. The orchestra and its fans filled seven buses for the trip to New York City, where the entourage was invited to round out a concert with the University of Southern Denmark Symphony Orchestra. The 80-member orchestra performed two percussion-heavy pieces: "Danzon No. 2" by Arturo Marquez, with Williamson on timpani, and "Polovtsian Dances" from Alexander Borodin's "Prince Igor," for which he played snare drum and tambourine. "Most professional musicians never get invited to play there," said Williamson, who volunteers with a number of groups throughout the region, "so this is probably going to be the highlight of my musical career, and something that I will never be honored to do again."
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