Join the UCR Orchestra and Wind Ensemble at the annual Fall Concert on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m. at the University Theatre.
Conductor Ruth Charloff will direct the UCR Orchestra for the first half of the concert. The audience will enjoy works from Benjamin Britten, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Antonin Dvorak. These works are a preview of the orchestra’s February concert.
The second half of the concert will feature the UCR Wind Ensemble directed by Armando Dueñas and will feature great music from film, including “West Side Story,” “The Polar Express,” and “Star Wars,” showcasing Student Director Sarah Howick and the conducting debut of Christopher Shimoon.
“We’re playing a pretty extroverted repertoire,” Charloff said. “We will begin with the American composer Gian Carlo Menotti.”
Menotti’s 1951 one-act opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” was the first opera written for television. Commissioned by NBC and performed by the NBC Opera, it was Hallmark Hall of Fame’s debut production. It’s a Christmas story about a shepherd boy on crutches who is visited by the Three Magi on their way to see the baby Jesus. When the boy offers his crutch as a gift for the Child, his leg is miraculously healed. With his mother’s permission, he journeys with the Magi to Bethlehem.
“The whole piece is suffused with magic and tenderness,” Charloff said. The second piece will be three movements from Benjamin Britten’s 1941 “Matinées musicales.”
“These movements are very outgoing and humorous pieces based on Rossini. Britten orchestrated it in different ways to make it his own, so he selected these different moods and orchestrated it so it’s fun music,” Charloff said.
This music was expanded from his 1937 composition, “Soirée musicales,” for Lincoln KIesein, co-founder of the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre, for a South American tour by the American Ballet. “The Ballet was doing these international tours at a time when the United States was eager to demonstrate cultural attractiveness and make cultural ties with other countries particularly in this hemisphere,” Charloff said.
The orchestra will finish with the first and third movement from Dvorak’s 8th Symphony. “It is a very sunny and beautiful symphony. It will fill the basic human need for us to see that kind of joy and kind of beauty in the world. It’s a pretty joyous program all around,” Charloff said.
The great thing for audience members who routinely attend the UCR Orchestra performances, is experiencing changes in the orchestra. Students come and go, and this season looks to be a wonderful year.
“We have a lot of new string players that are good, and our sections are robust. There are great people in the orchestra. It's fun and we can accomplish a lot,” Charloff said.
Given the beauty and expressiveness of the music selections, concert goers can expect to leave for intermission in high spirits and perhaps warm hearted as the holiday season approaches. Then return for the second half and some great movie tunes.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the UCR Performing Arts site.
