- SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Dennis Friesen-Carper, conductor
The Valparaiso University Symphony Orchestra is a select student ensemble dedicated to professional standards of performance of works from both the standard and contemporary repertories. Recent seasons have seen performances of major symphonic works by Brahms, Shostakovich, R. Strauss, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, as well as works by Adams, MacMillan, Rautavaara, Torke, and several premieres. Although a majority of the players are music majors, the orchestra has members from all of VU’s professional colleges. The Symphony made its debut as an all-student symphonic orchestra in 1999, and released its first CD, Reformation, in 2001. The Symphony has toured from Minneapolis and St. Louis to New York City, performed in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and Cleveland’s Severence Hall. International touring has included England, Wales and Ireland, and concerts in Prague, Pilsen, Linz, Vienna, and Budapest in May of 2008.
Featured guest conductors have included: Helmuth Rilling, Bachakadämie Stuttgart; Dennis Russell Davies, Bruckner Symphony of Linz; Barbara Schubert, University of Chicago and DuPage Symphony Orchestras; and Craig Jessop, Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Guest soloists have included: Walter Preucil, cello; Maki Namekawa, piano; Channing Philbrick, trumpet; Yan Shengmin, tenor; Zhu Changyao, erhu; Rachel Barton, violin; and Butterfly Troupe, traditional Chinese performers from Zhejiang province. Last season, the Symphony celebrated VU’s 150th Anniversary by collaborating with multiple Grammy artist, fiddler/composer Mark O’Connor in his Concerto No. 6, ‘Old Brass’. Two Christmas concerts accompanying the Trinity United Church of Christ 200-voice Sanctuary Choir have been featured on Chicago television. The 2007 VU Christmas Concert is available on DVD, and will be broadcast by public television stations across the U.S. this Christmas season.
The VUSO regularly features VU faculty and student soloists and conductors in its concert performances and is joined at Homecoming this year by alumnus and incoming Department Chair Joseph Bognar for performances of Beethoven and Gershwin. Major choral collaborations have included: Barber’s Prayers of Kirkegaard, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Brahms’ German Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Requiem, and Bach Institute performances of St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and the Mass in B Minor. Members of the Symphony also collaborate in a wide range of fully staged theatrical productions, from A Chorus Line, Children of Eden, and Into the Woods to Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus, and The Magic Flute.
The Symphony has premiered works by Robert Edward Smith, Zae Munn, Randall Davidson, and commissioned alumni Frank Ferko and Karen Olson. In 2007, the Symphony was joined by the VU Chorale, Kantorei, University Singers, Southlake Children’s Choir, community choristers, and soloists to premiere the oratorio Innocents by Walter Wangerin, Jr. and Dennis Friesen-Carper.
In February 2008, the VUSO performed for the inauguration of the VU Confucius Institute, and in September hosted the Great Lakes Confucius Institute Music Festival with five regional high school orchestras and the Silk and Bamboo Troupe from Jiangsu province. The culminating concert featured two hundred musicians performing Chinese works for Western orchestra with traditional Chinese instruments.
This season, members of the Symphony will perform in the Bach Institute presentation of the St. Matthew Passion conducted by German Baroque specialist, Hermann Max. In May 2010, the Symphony will close the year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of VU’s iconic Chapel of the Resurrection with a gala performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, collaborating with alumni, faculty, guest artists, and a 200-voice chorus.
For more information about CD's and other media material, please visit www.valpoarts.com