The UMD Symphony Orchestra performs the triumphal Sibelius Symphony No. 3 and Strauss’ tone poem Don Juan, based on Don Juans Ende, a play derived from an unfinished 1844 retelling of the tale by poet Nikolaus Lenau.
Join UMWO in challenging conventional wind ensemble sound with inventive instrumentation, subject matter and use of multimedia. Garden images accompany Dove’s Figures in the Garden, while Lang’s Cheating, Lying and Stealing includes video clips from the eponymous Guitar Hero game available on Garage Band. Works by the eclectic and avant-garde musician and composer Frank Zappa complete the program.
Praised by audiences for its varied repertoire, this annual event has a loyal following.
Spirit and spectacle combine in an extravaganza that features the finest wind repertoire plus the ever-popular Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band.
In this annual event, director Chris Vadala brings together three ensembles in innovative interpretations of classic and contemporary jazz works
John Corigliano’s Circus Maximus for wind orchestra is, like the ancient Roman arena, built both to embody and to comment on massive and glamorous barbarity. A large and theatrical piece, the audience is encircled by musicians, literally becoming the center attraction of the grand arena. This massive work is contrasted with two chamber pieces, Bernard’s elegant Divertissment for woodwinds and Ewazen’s Symphony in Brass.
In its second collaboration with new partner The Phillips Collection, the UMD School of Music Symphony Orchestra performs Derek Bermel’s Migration Series, joined onstage by UMD’s Jazz Band, Chamber Singers and Wind Orchestra. The performance is inspired by paintings from The Phillips Collection’s Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence, depicting the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North between the World Wars.
A renowned pianist once said, “Bach’s Goldberg Variations caused me misery but I still can’t get enough.” This concert of themes and variations will satisfy with works by Revueltas and Brouwer, whose Canción de gesta is an homage to anti-Batista Cuban revolutionaries.
PROGRAM:
The ancient Roman tale of the violation of the virtuous Lucretia by the vicious Tarquinius receives a haunting treatment as two modern observers, one male and one female, attempt to interpret the events even as they unfold. The pair seeks to find spiritual meaning and redemption in a hellish act of violence.
Britten composed The Rape of Lucretia in 1946, in a world still reeling from the horrors of World War II. The opera continues to resonate today as we face a rising surge of violence throughout the world.
Considered lighthearted but not lightweight, Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony is paired with Debussy’s beloved Impressionist piece, La Mer. In honor of the 100th anniversary of Dutilleux’s birthday, his cello concerto Tout un monde lointain, written for Rostropovich, will be performed by faculty artist Eric Kutz.
Eric Kutz is the recipient of The Barbara K. Steppel Memorial Faculty Fellowship in Cello.
The Maryland Opera Studio pairs two radically different tellings of the Orpheus myth — Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers — in their fully produced Spring opera. In Gluck’s version, Orpheus, the greatest musician the world has ever known, receives permission from the gods to venture into Hades and bring his beloved Eurydice back from death, but with a cruel stipulation that leads to tragedy.
