Music fans and novices alike will be entertained Thursday evening when both familiar and lesser-known classical tunes echo throughout the Moody Music Building.
The concert will close the Huxford Symphony Orchestra’s 2014-15 season, which included six shows. Blake Richardson, director of orchestral studies for the School of Music, said the concert will serve the audience a wide variety of musical dishes.
“In this concert, we will get to see a lot of different types of music and performers,” he said.
This concert is special not only because it closes the season but also because the orchestra will collaborate with the University’s choir, the University Singers, for “Cantata Misericordium” by Benjamin Britten. The orchestra will also perform two other pieces, “Piano Concerto No. 1” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and “Symphony No. 3” by Ludwig van Beethoven.
“The Beethoven piece is my favorite because it explores many different dynamics of human emotion,” Richardson said. “The first movement is heroic and majestic. The third movement is very light like a dance, and the last movement is heroic again – a thrilling finale.”
One of the students performing in this concert is Lindsey South, a sophomore majoring in violin performance. She said she expects audience members to enjoy this concert because of its accessibility and diverse music.
“We’re playing three pieces, and I like that it’s really diverse,” she said. “I think everyone will enjoy hearing different time periods.”
Jackson Morris, a junior majoring in aerospace engineering, has played the string bass in the orchestra for three years. He said he is looking forward to sharing familiar music with the audience during this concert.
“There’s a lot of material we’re doing, and any big classical music fan would know these huge pieces,” he said. “But it’s also more accessible – [they’re] very famous pieces. It’s the most well-known material we’ve done in a concert so far this year.”
Morris said his favorite piece from this particular concert is “Piano Concerto No. 1” by Tchaikovsky.
“Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite composers, and we’ve played this piece once earlier in the year so we all know the ends and outs of [it],” he said. “It’s a joy to listen to.”
Although students in the orchestra perform multiple concerts each school year, they said they do not grow tired of the experience.
“We do this three times a semester, and we just keep going,” Morris said. “We go through all these amazing pieces, and it’s just what we do.”
General admission is $10, but tickets can be purchased for $3 with a student ID. They are also available at uamusic.tix.com.
