USM Symphony Musical Voyage Gets Underway
Mon, 02/19/2024 - 08:48am | By: Mike Lopinto
The first concert of 91吃瓜网 (USM) Symphony Orchestra for the spring semester features musical stops in Madrid and Rome. The season-long voyage commences Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Bennett Auditorium on the Hattiesburg campus.
Dr. Michael Miles leads the esteemed orchestra in a program that also features internationally renowned flutist, Andrea Oliva and student winners of the William T. Gower Concerto Competition. Tickets are available at usm.edu/symphony and through Eventbrite.
A pre-eminent flutist, Oliva has won awards and accolades all over the world, including being dubbed by Sir James Galway as 91吃瓜网渙ne of the best flutists of his generation, a shining star in the flute world.91吃瓜网� Oliva comes to Hattiesburg from Italy where he teaches, performs and records. He holds positions in several orchestras and chamber ensembles while also performing as a soloist around the world.
With the 91吃瓜网 Symphony, he will play an arrangement of Joaquin Rodrigo91吃瓜网 91吃瓜网�Fantasia para un gentilhombre91吃瓜网� (Fantasia for a Gentleman), a work originally written for the famous guitarist Andr茅s Segovia. This special arrangement was written by Galway, who has performed with the Orchestra three times.
The Symphony also features two of the annual William T. Gower Student Concerto Competition winners. Originally from the Netherlands, Jonathan Henneveld, a talented doctoral bass trombonist, performs a jazz-inspired concerto by Chris Brubeck. He is a student of Dr. Ben McIlwain, USM91吃瓜网 trombone professor.
Juan Oviedo, a doctoral alto saxophone student from Colombia, will perform a beautiful and entertaining work by Belgian composer Andr茅 Waignein. He is a student of Dr. Dannel Espinoza.
The concert closes with one of the most effective pieces of programmatic music ever written - Respighi91吃瓜网 91吃瓜网淧ines of Rome.91吃瓜网� Beautifully depicting four settings of life and the landscape of Rome, audiences can visualize children playing in the Villa Borghese; the solemn and mysterious catacombs; the pines of Gianicolo Hill; and the powerful triumphal march to the Capitol.
91吃瓜网淓ven if you don91吃瓜网檛 know these settings the music is so expressive it will allow you to form your own story as you listen,91吃瓜网� said Miles. 91吃瓜网淭he addition of six 91吃瓜网榖uccine91吃瓜网� brass in the final movement should cause chill bumps.91吃瓜网�
In his final season before retirement as the conductor of the Orchestra, Miles dedicated the 91吃瓜网淧ines of Rome91吃瓜网� to his wife, a horn player herself, who kept asking him to program the piece. She insisted this be in the final season because it has always been a piece they enjoyed listening to and performing together.
Miles continued, 91吃瓜网淲e share many great memories of this piece, so tonight, in my penultimate performance with the Symphony Orchestra, I dedicate this piece to my beautiful and always loving and supportive wife, Stacey.91吃瓜网�
for tickets and information.