Symphony Orchestra Brochure 2015-16

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA I 96th SEASON I 2015-16

W O R L D W I N D

Jay Dean has directed and conducted the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra since 1988. His work as a conductor spans orchestras in the United States, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. His recruiting efforts have turned the USM Symphony Orchestra into a multinational conglomerate that includes students from numerous countries. Unique partnerships that have been developed under his leadership have allowed the orchestra to achieve a reputation of superior musicianship that has brought international acclaim to the university and to the state. As a musical ambassador for Mississippi, Dean regularly seeks opportunities to collaborate with world-class artists. The orchestra has performed with world-renowned instrumental icons such as Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Sir James Galway, Joshua Bell, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Manuel Barrueco, John Browning, Christopher Parkening and Alexandre Brussilovsky. He has directed performances across the state with major popular artists such as Doc Severinsen, the Pointer Sisters, Patti La Belle, Dionne Warwick, Patti Austin, Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent and Linda Eder.

Under his direction, the Southern Opera and Musical Theatre Company has grown into a competitive program that presents fully produced operas, operettas and musicals each season. Part of its evolution includes the development of an educational outreach program that reaches not only area children, but tours cities throughout the state and region. His operatic activities have included performances with operatic superstars and popular icons such as Renée Fleming, Denyce Graves, Sandi Patty, Roberta Peters, Deborah Voigt and Plácido Domingo.

In addition to his duties at Southern Miss, Dean currently serves as the artistic director for Mississippi Opera and the Natchez Festival of Music. He is the founding artistic director of FestivalSouth® and the former general director of the Hattiesburg Concert Association. Other past appointments include the executive director of the Vicksburg International Chamber Music Festival, artistic director of the Southern Arts Festival, and music coordinator for the Mississippi Commission for International Cultural Exchange.

The symphony, opera and other artistic programs he directs at Southern Miss and throughout the state are projects that enhance the lives of Mississippi citizens. His work within the community and university was honored in 2009 when he and The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra received the Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Arts. In 2011, Dean’s continual effort to bring world-class art to the local community and state of Mississippi was recognized with a Leadership in the Arts award from the Historic Hattiesburg Downtown Association and the Excellence for Global Arts and Culture Award from the Mississippi World Trade Center. Dean has also been inducted into the USM Alumni Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Southern Mississippi Research Council and the Hub Award. His continuing mission is to provide life-changing experiences for his students and contribute to the quality of life in the community and state of which he is a part.

W O R L D W I N D

Every symphonic concert this season features wind or brass soloists. Some of these performers will be students who come from different parts of the world, including Mississippi, while others are globally renowned celebrity artists. Therefore, it seems that we should title the season something reflective of this unusual circumstance. With this in mind, please join us for a “WorldWind” of a season!

- Jay Dean

ORDER NOW ONLINE

www.southernmisstickets.com Click on BUY SOUTHERN MISS TICKETS, then ARTS & LETTERS EVENTS, then SYMPHONY SEASON.

PHONE

800.844.8425 or 601.266.5418

IN PERSON

Southern Miss Ticket Office Pat Ferlise Center W. Fourth Street and Golden Eagle Avenue

SEASON TICKETS PLATINUM $ 195 ($26 savings!)

GOLD $ 155 ($20 savings!)

SILVER $ 95 ($16 savings!)

YOUTH $ 50 ($30 savings!)

Service Fee $ 5 Please have your credit card ready and be ready to choose: • West Side Story on October 15, 16, at 7:30 p.m.

or October 18, at 2 p.m.

• Holiday Choral Spectacular on December 1 or 3, at 7:30 p.m.; • Carmen, February 18 and 20 ,at 7:30 p.m.

Individual tickets go on sale September 1.

Partners for the Arts (PFTA) continues to provide essential funding for a variety of School of Music performances.

Your membership dollars have a great impact on the performances we produce.

Please visit www.usm.edu/pfta and become a “Friend of Music” to help support all our performances.

OPENING NIGHT

NEW ACQUAINTANCES OLD FRIENDS

&

Jacquelyn Adams, horn Jay Dean, conductor Ivan del Prado, conductor

October 1, 2015, 7:30 p.m.

Mannoni Performing Arts Center Auditorium WORLD PREMIERE Zaninelli – Nostalgic Dances WORLD PREMIERE Naigus – Radiant Dances for Horn and Strings Brahms – Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 Our 96th season proves to be one of our best yet— full of premieres and celebrities!

Our first program, New Acquaintances and Old Friends, includes two world premieres. First, Nostalgic Dances by our own Luigi Zaninelli is fondly reminiscent of the great dance era of the early 20th century with charming and beautiful tunes from cafés of days gone by.

Then, our new horn professor, Jacquelyn Adams performs her Mississippi debut with her newly commissioned piece, Radiant Dances for horn and strings by Iowa composer James Naigus.

Finally the evening will close with an old musical friend, Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C minor— a timeless work that audiences love to hear.

T I C K E T S

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The Southern Opera and Musical Theatre Company presents

WEST SIDE STORY

Michael Miles, conductor Rob Mulholland, stage director

October 15, 16, at 7:30 p.m.

October 18, at 2 p.m.

Mannoni Performing Arts Center Auditorium From first note to the final breath, Leonard Bernstein’s Tony and Academy Awardwinning musical West Side Story is one of the most memorable, exciting and iconic shows in the history of the American Broadway Musical.

Shakespeare’s classic tale of Romeo and Juliet is set in modern-day New York City, where two young and idealistic lovers find themselves caught in a war of prejudice, race and status of two street gangs - the Jets and the Sharks.

They struggle to survive in a world of intolerance, violence and discrimination.

The Washington Post called West Side Story “a uniquely cohesive comment on life...The violence is senseless, but Leonard Bernstein’s score makes us feel what we do not understand.”

Following in the footsteps of last season’s Mary Poppins, audiences will adore the spectacle, dance and drama of this great American musical.

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SONIC BLAST

Richard Perry, Jamie Lipton, Joe Skillen, and Demondrae Thurman, Tubas Jay Dean, conductor

November 5, 2015, 7:30 p.m.

Bennett Auditorium MISSISSIPPI PREMIERE Stevens – Grand Concerto for 4 Tubas Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 The first powerful work provides the literal inspiration for the title of the concert,

Grand Concerto for 4 Tubas written by American composer, John Stevens, former

director of the School of Music and professor of tuba and euphonium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. University of Southern Mississippi tuba and euphonium professor, Dr. Richard Perry; Dr. Jamie Lipton from Henderson State University; Dr. Joe Skillen from Louisiana State University; and Dr. Demondrae Thurman from the University of Alabama join together to present the Mississippi premiere of this unique work.

Upon its premiere in Leningrad, Russia, on November 21, 1937, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor received a standing ovation lasting over half an hour. Written during the “Great Purge” of the Soviet Union, it was intended to mark his political rehabilitation and confinement to party expectations. In this powerful symphony, Shostakovich found a combination of ambiguous satire and heroic classicism—conveying unique conformity to the authorities of the Russian state and simultaneously expressing the suffering imposed by Stalin on the common public.

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Gregory Fuller, conductor Webb Parker, conductor

December 1 and 3, 2015, 7:30 p.m.

Main Street Baptist Church I heard the bells, on Christmas Day, Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Your Symphony Orchestra is joined by The University of Southern Mississippi Choirs, the Hattiesburg Civic Chorus, and Hattiesburg area high school singers as they collaborate in our annual holiday community celebration!

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The Southern Opera and Musical Theatre Company presents

CARMEN Jay Dean, conductor Joseph Levitt, stage director

February 18 and 20, 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Mannoni Performing Arts Center Auditorium A timeless tale of love, danger and betrayal, Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen has enjoyed hundreds of thousands of performances worldwide.

The famous music is so ingrained into our popular culture that audiences immediately recognize its famous melodies and infamous characters. Carmen, the beautiful, exotic, sensuous and dangerous gypsy seduces Don José, an army corporal, into the life of a common criminal by singing her “Habanera.”

Later, Escamillo, Carmen’s new love interest and an ensemble cast of raucous gypsies and smugglers escalate the dramatic tension of the story to its tragic conclusion.

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STAGES OF CHANGE

Anthony McGill, clarinet Michael Miles, conductor

February 26, 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Bennett Auditorium Rossini – Overture to Il Barbiere di Siviglia Copland – Quiet City Stravinsky – Suite from Pulcinella Nielsen – Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57 An opera, a concerto, a play and a ballet—it’s an evening of music for the stage!

As infamously heard in Bugs Bunny cartoons, the Beatles’ film Help, and a Seinfeld episode, among other comedic romps, Rossini’s Overture to Il Barbiere di Siviglia is one of the most recognized and well-loved opera overtures. Boisterous rhythms and Neapolitan dance melodies begin our evening of orchestral stage entertainment.

Originally composed as incidental music for Irwin Shaw’s experimental play,

Quiet City, Aaron Copeland’s orchestral staging offers a pensive ode to New York. A

beautiful and haunting solo trumpet captures quintessential Americana through a nostalgic collage of string textures.

Stravinsky’s orchestral staging, a suite derived from his neoclassical ballet Pulcinella, closes our musical bouquet of great orchestral works for the stage.

This brilliantly quaint work depicts a story of love and jovial pranks of the infamous commedia dell’arte puppet.

Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic and one of the classical music world’s finest solo, chamber and orchestral musicians, joins the symphony to perform Nielson’s Clarinet Concerto. McGill is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Bard College Conservatory of Music and Manhattan School of Music, and has given master classes throughout the United States, Europe and South Africa.

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THE GALWAYS R E T U R N

Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway, flutes Jay Dean, conductor

March 31, 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Bennett Auditorium Mercadante – Flute Concerto in E minor, Op. 57 Overtton – Minuet and Finale from The Magic Flutes Prokofiev – Suite from Romeo and Juliet On their third appearance with the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony, Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway return for another spectacular evening of virtuosity and world-class entertainment.

Appearing regularly as the world’s premiere flute duo, they delight audiences worldwide with their unparalleled performances.

The living legend of the flute, Sir James Galway, is regarded as both the supreme interpreter of the classical flute repertoire and a consummate entertainer whose appeal crosses all musical boundaries. He has made himself a modern musical master, whose virtuosity on the flute is equaled only by his limitless ambitions and vision. Through his extensive touring, over 30 million albums sold, and his frequent international television appearances, Sir James has endeared himself to millions worldwide and is a tireless promoter of the arts. An accomplished flutist, Lady Jeanne Galway continues to grace international platforms with her unquestioned virtuosity. One of the leading female flute soloists of the decade, Lady Jeanne brings her unique style and elegance to audiences around the globe.

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SYMPHONY SEASON FINALE

future st rs Winners of the William T. Gower Scholarship Competition and Choral World Premiere Gregory Fuller, conductor Michael Miles, conductor

April 28, 2016, 7:30 p.m.

Main Street Baptist Church This year the annual William T. Gower Concerto Competition features brass, woodwind and percussion soloists at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Each year we honor the memory of Gower, a renowned woodwind performer, teacher and conductor of the Southern Miss Symphony, by awarding three superb musicians a performance with the Symphony on the Future Stars concert that has become a favorite of audiences.

WORLD PREMIERE Burchard – The Seven Last Words The evening will also feature the world premiere a newly commissioned work by the Department of Choral Activities at Southern Miss. The piece, by Richard Burchard, an award-winning choral composer from Louisville, Kentucky, is based on the “Seven Last Words” of Christ from the four canonical gospels.

Burchard teaches composition, theory, electronic music and world music at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, and serves as a guest choral clinician both nationally and internationally.

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Nonprofit Organization US Postage Paid Hattiesburg, MS 39402 Permit No. 148

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 118 College Drive #5081 Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001

96th SEASON SPONSOR

BRINGING THE WORLD TO MISSISSIPPI www.usm.edu/symphony AA/EOE/ADAI