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RIC Music – spring 2010 preview

RIC Chorus
The RIC Symphony Orchestra will present the 15th Samuel and Esther Chester Performance Award Concert on March 8. Aaron Copland’s serial composition, “Inscape” will be performed, led by student conductor Jenna Ramos.
Charles and Consuelo Sherba are featured violin and viola soloists in Mozart’s magnificent “Sinfonia Concertante.” The program concludes with Antonin Dvořák’s “Symphony No. 9 in E Minor,” conducted by Symphony Orchestra leader Edward Markward.

The RIC Symphony Orchestra’s 32nd Annual Bicho Family Scholarship Concert will perform Schubert’s “Symphony No. 8 in B Minor” (Unfinished) and Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 4 in G Major,” famous for its depiction of “a child’s vision of heaven.” Edward Markward, in his 37th year at the college, conducts this April 26 concert. RIC alumna Patrice Tiedemann is featured as soprano soloist.

On Feb. 26, the RIC Wind Ensemble, led by Robert Franzblau, presents New England Voices, offering music written by past and present New England composers such as Charles Ives, Roger Cichy and RIC faculty member Barbara Kolb. The concert will mark the world premiere of a concerto for flute and wind ensemble by Michael Weinstein. The featured soloist will be Mary Ellen Guzzio of RIC. Keith Brion, international expert on the music of Charles Ives, will guest conduct.

The RIC Wind Ensemble will present on April 23. (Re-) Made in America, which offers music written in America with musical inspiration coming from overseas. The concert will feature David Del Tredici’s “In Wartime,” a monumental impression written during the height of America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. Two young American composers, Steven Bryant and Kathryn Salfelder, will perform opening works. The winner of the 2010 RIC Senior Concerto Competition will also perform.

The Wednesday Chamber Music Series will present an entertaining lineup of talented musicians in “Celebrity Series,” with a question-and-answer session following each performance. On March 24, three members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Stillman will perform piano quartets in two concerts with works by Mozart and Schumann including a special evening show.

The Wednesday Chamber Music Series concludes with the RIC Faculty Chamber Players performance of William Walton’s “Façade,” an Entertainment with Poems by Edith Sitwell, on April 14. The March 5 RIC Spring Choral Concert will feature the RIC Chorus, Chamber Singers and Women’s Chorus, conducted by Teresa Coffman, and the Men’s Chorus, conducted by Tianxu Zhou. This concert culminates the brief residency of guest composer/conductor Joshua Jacobson. Jacobson is the founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston.

On April 30, the RIC Bon Voyage Choral Concert will “send off ” graduating music majors and celebrate the Chorus and Chamber Singer members’ fifth international choral concert tour, as they prepare to voyage to Portugal and Spain in May. This concert will feature the RIC Chorus, Chamber Singers and Women’s Chorus, conducted by Teresa Coffman, and the Men’s Chorus, conducted by Tianxu Zhou.

The eighth annual Faculty Recital on Feb. 10 showcases members of the RIC Music, Theatre, and Dance faculty. Donations received benefit the Deborah Griffin Memorial Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships to outstanding music majors.

Two Chamber Music at Rhode Island College concerts – on Feb. 28 and April 11 – will be conducted by John Sumerlin. The RIC Chamber Orchestra and Small Ensembles will perform.

On March 10, Greg Abate, RIC educator and noted saxophonist, will direct the RIC Jazz Workshop Combos Performance.

Join music director Joseph Foley and the Rhode Island Concert Jazz Band on the evening of May 3, for a concert featuring the music of the legendary trumpeter Doc Severinsen of the Tonight Show.

Students in the Opera Workshop at Rhode Island College will perform with pianists Christina Breindel and John Henry Burns on May 9. Selections include scenes from “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss, Jr., “Don Pasquale” by Gaetano Donizetti, “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. Edward Markward and Susan Rodgers co-direct.

For general information on RIC music, theatre and dance events, call (401) 456-9883 or visit www.ric.edu/pfa .

See all the spring 2010 performing and fine arts events.

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