Symphony, choirs present heroic music

  Tuesday, April 21, 2015 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

Together, the voices of the Pittsburg State University Choirs and the musicians of the Southeast Kansas Symphony are a powerful force and the two have chosen appropriate music for their first combined concert in PSU’s Bicknell Family Center for the Arts. The choirs and the symphony will present “Heroic Music for Voices and Orchestra” at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 26.

The SEK Symphony is under the direction of Raul Mungia. The choirs are under the direction of Susan Marchant.

Sunday’s program includes Handel’s “Te Deum for the Victory of Dettingen,” Verdi’s Overature to “La Forza del Destino,” and Devorak’s “Te Deum,” Op. 103.

Marchant said the program was selected with a purpose.

“We chose these works because of their strength and beauty,” Marchant said. “As the first collaborative performance of this type in the new Bicknell Center, we wanted to present music that is highly celebratory in its character.”

Preparing a concert of this magnitude is no small task, which is one reason it is done only every two years.

“Every two years, when we mount a large collaborative concert of this type with the Southeast Kanasas Symphony, we invite singers from Pittsburg and surrounding communities to join us in preparing and performing this glorious music,” Marchant said. “This year's core of community singers has been meeting weekly since February in preparation for Sunday’s event.”

Two guest soloists will join the choirs and orchestra. Jessica Dold (BME ’06) is a soprano who is active on the opera stage and as a solo and collaborative artist. Baritone Ian Greenlaw is a colleague of Dold’s in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Dold is a 2010 Orpheus Competition Winner, a 2010 HGO Eleanor McCullum Competition Finalist, and a 2010 Florida Grand Opera Studio Finalist. Greenlaw has performed on center stage for operas across the U.S. He made his La Scala debut in 1984 and has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Colorado, Arizona Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Central City Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Dallas Opera, and Lyric Opera Cleveland.

Tickets for the performance are $7 for adults and $5 for children and senior citizens. PSU students, faculty and staff are admitted free with ID. Tickets are available in advance at the PSU Ticket Office in the Weede Physical Education Building, 1701 S. Homer, 620-235-4536, or at the door the afternoon of the performance.