Spring 2013 News
Ensembles
This May, the Commonwealth Singers will tour internationally to Montreal, Canada for a performance with the acclaimed professional chamber orchestra Ensemble Appassionata at the Salle Pierre Mercure performance hall. Additional tour performances will include: Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal, Rhinebeck Reformer Church, and Chatham High School in New York state. For more information on their itinerary, fund-raising efforts, or to make a donation to assist in covering the costs of the tour, please contact Rebecca Tyree.
In 12 months, VCU Opera has won three awards from the National Opera Association. Most recently, VCU Opera won 3rd place in the “Opera Scenes” Competition for a selection from La bohème.
Park Avenue Brass is back from a successful tour to Florida where they performed at locations such as the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg and University of Tampa.
Faculty
Daniel Myssyk and the Appassionata Chamber Orchestra, which he directs, have received several glowing reviews on their album, Czech Serenades. Reviewer Jean-Yves Duperron of the Classical Music Sentinel stated that he has “rarely heard these two works played with this much conviction” and called it a “sonically beautiful recording…highly recommended!” Read the full review here.
Charles West directed the Youth Symphony of Central Virginia, which was chosen as a Commended Winner for the National Orchestra Honors Project from the Foundation for Music Education. The Mark of Excellence recorded music contest offers bands, choirs, and orchestras the unprecedented opportunity to earn national recognition for their musical achievement.
Tabatha Peters and her trio were accepted to perform at the Southeast Women’s Studies Association 2013 Conference, Outrage!: Discourses, Practices, and Politics of Protest and Social Transformation. The presentation entitled, “Perseverance through Performance” features musical pieces that highlight women’s experience from Calamity Jane to conflicts in 1980s Central America and concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Terry Austin was recently elected as Vice President of the American Bandmasters Association at their 79th Convention in Tampa, FL. The following year, he will become President-elect and the year after that, President.
Alumni
In January, Alvester Garnett and his Artworks Ensemble visited VCUQatar, performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha, and was featured in a BBC article and video about the power of music and culture in the Middle East.
Students
Horn students Peter DelGrosso (finalist, college solo competition) and Marcus Redden (honorable mention, mock low horn audition) received acknowledgements for their outstanding performances at the Southeast Horn Workshop, which this year, was hosted by VCU.
Victor Haskins was selected for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead, the international jazz residency, performance and composition project. His solo album, The Truth, debuts late this month.
VCU Symphony, Commonwealth Singers, and Choral Arts Society premiered Allen Wittig’s “Crisis of a Country -- A U.S. Civil War Musical Retrospective" on March 14. Narrarated by Christy Coleman, President of the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, the piece covers decades of American history.
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