Season finale featuring Copland's "Appalachian Spring" highlights May concerts by UNCSA student ensembles

The School of Music concludes its 2020-21 season with Beethoven to Copland!, a free season finale livestream concert featuring Aaron Copland’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Appalachian Spring,” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 15. Associate Conductor Karen Ní Bhroin leads the UNCSA Chamber Orchestra. The concert, from UNCSA’s world-class Watson Chamber Music Hall, also features the UNCSA Chamber Winds performing  Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 transcribed for harmonie (woodwind) ensemble by Beethoven’s protégé, Georg Schmitt. Faculty-artist Mark A. Norman, the newly appointed music director and conductor of Piedmont Wind Symphony, conducts the Chamber Winds.

Tickets are available online or by calling the Box Office at 336-721-1945.

“Appalachian Spring” premiered in 1944 as a commissioned score for a ballet choreographed by Martha Graham, who named the music and the dance after a poem by Hart Crane. Known as the “dean of American composers,” Copland was one of the 20th century’s foremost composers of highly influential music that had a distinctive blend of classical, folk and jazz idioms. He used a popular Shaker song,  “Simple Gifts,” in his “Appalachian Spring” score.

Additional concerts in May include

Wind Chamber Ensembles Concert
Saturday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Livestreamed from Watson Hall

Woodwind and brass chamber ensembles coached by faculty-artists perform a varied program spanning four centuries. The brass quintets perform selections from Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and Viktor Ewald’s Quintet No. 1. The Baroque Ensemble performs Vivaldi's Trio Sonata in Bb major, RV76, No. 5 and the Wind Octet performs the harmoniemusick (music written for wind ensembles) of Beethoven and Krommer. The Woodwind Quintets feature Astor Piazzolla’s “Oblivion” and “Libertango” and selections from Ligeti’s “Bagatelles” and Heetderks’ “Pitchblende” for reed quintet.

English Channels: UNCSA Amadeus Players, Brandenburg Ensemble and Wind Undecet
Friday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Livestreamed from Watson Hall

Vaughan Williams' popular “Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” is performed by the Amadeus Players with Karen Ní Bhroin conducting. The Brandenburg Ensemble performs Elgar's “Serenade” and Handel's Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 8 with faculty-artist Dmitri Shteinberg leading from the harpsichord. The Wind Undecet (an ensemble of 11 musicians) begins the program with UNCSA founding bassoon faculty-artist Mark Popkin’s arrangement of Brahms’ famous “Variations on a Theme by Haydn” conducted by Mark A. Norman.

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