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Camphouse

The Source

There may be another small-town mayor in Illinois who is also a symphony composer, but so far Perry’s Bill Camphouse seems to hold the sole distinction. The Sangamon Valley Community Orchestra at Springfield’s Hoogland Center will perform Camphouse’s recent work, Of the Timberland and Prairie..A Symphonic Suite for the Lincoln Bicentennial on Wednesday, January 13th at 7:30 p.m. Camphouse is currently professor emeritus from Kaskaskia College in Centralia, Illinois, and is the author of several commissioned works, many of which are based on Illinois themes. His works include A Lewis and Clark Celebration, Bridges, and The Fighting 99th. He collaborated with the late Senator Paul Simon, to create Let Every Man Remember, an Homage to Elijah Lovejoy, documenting the life and times of the 19th century abolitionist. He currently serves as Village President of Perry where he and wife Kristine, also a music educator, are restoring their Civil War era family home. Of the Timberland and Prairie is presented in three movements: There I Grew Up, A Love Lost, and The Honest Abe Quickstep, following the life of Lincoln from his early days as a hardscrabble youth, his romance with Ann Rutledge, to his marriage to Mary Todd, culminating in Ruffles and Flourishes, the opening strains of the Presidential Hail to the Chief. Camphouse says of his work, “The business of representing people, places, things, events and emotions through the abstract language of instrumental music is tricky and inexact,” and he asks the listener to “think of my music as a soundtrack of sorts, accompanying a three-scene tableau of Lincoln’s early days prior to his national fame and notoriety.” The presentation will be narrated by Ken Bradbury of Arenzville.