DPU Orchestra celebrates Thanksgiving with Monday evening concert at Kresge

Saturday, November 17, 2012
Orcenith Smith, DePauw University Orchestra conductor

A festive Thanksgiving week concert by the DePauw University Orchestra will bring dance-like music onto Kresge Auditorium stage at the Green Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, Nov. 19.

Featured on the 7:30 p.m. program will be works by Johann Strauss, Jr., Gustav Holst and Béla Bart--k.

The concert will begin with the overture from the DePauw Opera's upcoming February 2013 production, the Viennese operetta "Die Fledermaus" by Strauss.

"Lyric Movement," an unusual and poignant work by English composer Gustav Holst, will follow. This latter work, composed in 1933, will feature violist and School of Music faculty member Nicole Brockmann as the soloist.

The final piece on the program by Béla Bart--k, one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, was written in 1923 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the union of two cities, Buda and Pest, to form the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

"Bart--k's Dance Suite -- one of the great, technical rhythmic masterpieces -- will captivate the audience with its exquisite folk settings, haunting rhythm schemes, and its joyous outbursts of musical energy," Orcenith Smith, conductor of the DePauw Orchestra, said.

"The week of Thanksgiving is always an emotional one," according to Smith, "and we are honored to give a concert that helps to set a tone for the gathering of family and friends.

"Our music will range from happy to introspective and lyrical to exuberant," Smith added. "We hope it will put a lightness in everyone's step as they go to celebrate the activities of that special week."

DePauw Orchestra concerts are broadcast live on WGRE and on its website www.wgre-.org/listen.asp.

Tickets to the live performance of the orchestra in the Green Center can be purchased at www.depauw.edu/music/tickets. General admission tickets are $3. Admission for children 12 and younger, all students and seniors over 65 is free.

For additional information or assistance, stop by the GCPA box office located on the ground floor of the Green Center at 605 College Ave. or call 658-4817.

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