STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Enjoy “Autumn Leaves”—without having to rake them—when the Wood River Orchestra presents a free concert Sunday afternoon.

The Wood River Orchestra will perform an orchestral arrangement of the classic song “Autumn Leaves” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3, at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater in Hailey.

The orchestra will also perform “Autumn Awakens,” a work by contemporary American composer Travis Rigby, an award-winning composer who teaches music theory, history and composition at Westinghouse Arts Academy in Wilmerding, Pa.

The highlight of the free concert will be Felix Mendelssohn’s mighty Symphony No. 5, known as “Reformation.” Mendelssohn composed it in 1830 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, a crowning moment in the Reformation.

It’s a very difficult piece to master, noted violin player Lynne Heidel. “We performed it years ago but we’re much better now.”

Sunday’s concert will kick off an exciting season of music making that will include four main concerts, as well as chamber music concerts at the Wood River Jewish Community’s Lewis Family Center in Elkhorn. The intimate chamber music concerts, started a year ago, have been enthusiastically received.

The orchestra will stage its holiday concert in December followed by a winter and spring concert in the months to follow.

Orchestra Board President Janice Moulton said orchestra musicians are excited to present their fall concert: “The orchestra is very excited to start off the 2024-25 season with a challenging piece by Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 5, which is coming together nicely, since all of the hard work by our dedicated musicians is paying off. We also have two short autumn themed pieces that are perfect to put you in the mood for this fall weather.”