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DePauw Orchestra offers annual Thanksgiving week concert Nov. 23
The DePauw University Orchestra invites the community to begin its Thanksgiving week with a performance of "Mothership," an inventive work by Mason Bates, former composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Music director Orcenith Smith will conduct the program, to be presented at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23 in Kresge Auditorium, located within DePauw's Green Center for the Performing Arts.
"During Thanksgiving week, we find the emotions of this time of year filling more of our attention than usual," Smith said. "For students, being with family and friends at holidays starts different chapters of the life progression.
"As it can be an emotional time for us all, " the conductor continued, "the music chosen for this concert channels various aspects of that -- the familiar structures and balance of Bach's 'Brandenburg Concerto No. 3,' the emotional range of Howard Hanson's romantic 'Symphony No. 2,' and the addition of new conversations with a contemporary composer Mason Bates."
For Bates's "Mothership," classical orchestration is synthesized with beat layers found in pop dance music, an influenced acquired during his days as a DJ. The YouTube Symphony at the Sydney Opera House premiered the piece in 2012 to rave reviews; the work serves the DePauw students in their investigation of the 21st-Century Musician curriculum and the expanding horizons of classical performance practices.
Before the fall 2015 semester concludes, the University Orchestra will also perform for the fifth annual Holiday Gala on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium.
The gala features many ensembles of the School of Music in a festive setting. While the Saturday evening concert will be a full-length performance with intermission, a shortened one-hour program is planned Sunday afternoon for families with small children.
General admission to Monday's orchestra concert is $3. Tickets for seniors, children and all students are free.
For more information and to obtain tickets to both events, visit www.depauw.edu/music/tickets. An automatic kiosk located on the first floor of the Green Center is available for making walk-up ticket purchases at any time of day using a credit or debit card. The venue's box office is also open beginning one hour prior to each performance.