School of Music's concert season culminates Sunday

Friday, May 6, 2016
Kerry Jennings

The DePauw University School of Music's 2015-16 concert season will culminate in a joint choir and orchestra performance of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams' moving "Serenade to Music."

Featured soloists will be DePauw faculty artists Pamela Coburn (soprano), Caroline Smith (mezzo-soprano) and Kerry Jennings (tenor) with guest soloist Charles Stanton (baritone)

The concert, co-conducted by DePauw Orchestra director Orcenith Smith and director of choirs Kristina Boerger, will take place in the Green Center's Kresge Auditorium at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 8.

Inspired by text from Act V, Scene I of the 17th-century play "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare, "Serenade," conducted by Boerger, represents a melodic discussion about the power of music. As 2016 also marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the full concert program includes two additional works inspired by the English bard: The Scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet Overture--Fantasia," both conducted by Smith.

Williams composed his sublime "Serenade" in 1938 in honor of the English conductor Sir Henry Wood during the jubilee year of Wood's career. Although the conductor's name may be little known to many Americans, symphonic enthusiasts will be familiar with London's annual concert festival called "The Proms," which Wood co-founded. Short for "promenade concerts." The festival was designed to be enjoyed while strolling through London's pleasure gardens, and the words of this Shakespeare-inspired choral work are fittingly delivered through the voices of friends and lovers as the audience is asked to imagine them lounging on a moonlit bank contemplating the beauties of the night.

General admission to the year-end choir and orchestra concert is $3. Tickets for seniors, youth and all students are free.

Tickets may be obtained in person at the Green Center box office beginning one hour prior to Sunday's 3 p.m. performance or online at any time at www.brownpapertickets.com.

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