Concert Celebrates the Inauguration of University's Tenth President
BOSTON, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Boston University School of Music
presents the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus in a
concert at Carnegie Hall, performing Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No.
4 in F minor and Dona nobis pacem. The concert will take place on Tuesday,
April 18 at 8:00pm. Ann Howard Jones, Professor of Music and Director of
Choral Activities in the School of Music, and David Hoose, Professor of
Music and Director of Orchestral Activities in the School of Music, will
conduct. Soloists in the Dona nobis pacem will be soprano Michelle Johnson,
a BU Opera Institute student, and bass-baritone Simon Estes, Professor of
Music in the School of Music.
The concert is presented in honor of Robert A. Brown, who will formally
take the helm of the nation's fourth largest private university at an April
27 ceremony. Selected in May 2005, Dr. Brown assumed the BU presidency in
September after 25 years at MIT, the final seven as provost. Carnegie Hall,
the country's premier venue for classical music, is a fitting site to
launch the university's month-long inaugural celebration, and the concert
is expected to attract many of the nearly 50,000 BU alumni who reside in
the tri-state area.
The most important English composer of his generation, Ralph Vaughan
Williams was a key figure in the 20th century revival of British music. It
was between the two world wars that Vaughan Williams composed two of his
greatest works, the Symphony No. 4 in F minor (1931-1934) and Dona nobis
pacem (1936). Both masterful undertakings, in emotional perspective they
cover both ends of the spectrum: the Fourth Symphony an intense, roiling
response to the upheaval in which Europe was engulfed, and the Dona nobis
pacem, a rich expression of the composer's yearning for a more peaceful
world. Beginning with an anguished, thrusting first movement, the Symphony
grows in tension and agitation, punctuated by a long fitful melody that
rides upon pulsating heartbeats, all emphasized by a severe tautness of
structure. The Dona nobis pacem ("Give Us Peace") weaves together symphonic
conceptions with text from the Latin Mass, scripture passages, and the
poetry of Walt Whitman to express the composer's central theme. Despite the
gloom over Europe, the heart of the cantata consoles in ways that the
Symphony does not even imagine. Together, the two works create a powerful
and compelling program that speaks very directly and movingly of issues
that are as alive today as they were when Vaughan Williams composed them.
Ann Howard Jones, Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities
at Boston University, conducts the Boston University Symphonic Chorus and
Chamber Chorus, administers the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts
degrees in choral conducting, and teaches advanced choral conducting. Dr.
Jones recently concluded her eleventh season as conductor of the Young
Artists Chorus at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Recognized
for her expertise in conducting technique, choral and vocal pedagogy,
rehearsal procedures and performance practice, Dr. Jones has appeared as a
guest lecturer for the American Choral Directors Association, the Long
Island Choral Festival, the Tennessee Arts Academy, and on the campuses of
Northwestern University and The Juilliard School, among others.
David Hoose is Professor of Music and Director of Orchestral Activities
at the Boston University School of Music. He is also music director of two
distinguished Boston musical institutions, the Cantata Singers & Ensemble,
and Collage New Music. As well, Professor Hoose recently completed eleven
years as music director of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. Among
Professor Hoose's recent career highlights are a 2006 Grammy Award
nomination for his recording of John Harbison's "Mottetti di Montale" with
Collage New Music, and his acceptance of the prestigious 2005 Alice M.
Ditson Conductors Award, given in recognition of his commitment to the
performance of American music.
Soprano Michelle Johnson, a first year student in Boston University's
Opera Institute, is a student of Penelope Bitzas. She received her Bachelor
of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, and in 2005 was
a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she worked with James Levine
and performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Ms. Johnson was the
recipient of the Jan de Gaetani Award at the 2003 Orpheus National Vocal
Competition, and the Encouragement Award in the 2005 Metropolitan Opera New
England Regional Finals.
Bass-baritone Simon Estes, Professor of Music in the Boston University
School of Music, is celebrated for his opera, concert, and recital
performances, as well as his recording credits. He has performed
extensively with major international opera companies including the
Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as with
orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. Professor Estes has performed for President George H. W. Bush,
President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Pope John Paul II, and appears on several
recording labels, including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, and Sony
Classical.
Tickets to the April 18, 2005 Carnegie Hall concert are $35, $25, and
$15. They can be purchased on-line at http://www.carnegiehall.org or by
calling the Box Office at 212-247-7800.
The Boston University College of Fine Arts is a conservatory-style
school within a major research university, offering professional training
in Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts to both undergraduate and graduate
students, complemented by a liberal arts curriculum for undergraduate
students. Education at the College of Fine Arts begins at Boston University
and extends into the city of Boston, a center of cultural, artistic and
intellectual activity. The School of Music, founded in 1873, combines the
intimacy and intensity of conservatory training with a broadly based,
traditional liberal arts education at the undergraduate level and intense
coursework at the graduate level. The school offers undergraduate and
graduate degrees in performance, composition and theory, musicology, music
education, collaborative piano, historical performance, as well as a
certificate program in its Opera Institute, and artist and performance
diplomas.
SOURCE The Boston University School of Music
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Related links:
http://www.bu.edu
http://www.carnegiehall.org/
CONTACT:
Ellen Carr, +1-617-353-8783, emcarr@bu.edu,
or Tom Testa, +1-617-353-7628, ttesta@bu.edu, both of Boston
University
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