DPU to create ‘World of Sound’ for Art & Utopia event

Friday, October 28, 2016
Junior Jackson Bailey rehearses with the DePauw University Orchestra in preparation for its Sunday, Oct. 30 concert at 3 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, part of DePauw’s 15th annual ArtsFest.
Courtesy photo

The focus of the DePauw University Orchestra’s contribution to DPU’s ArtsFest 2016: “Art and Utopia,” will be on creating “another world of sound” through performance of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1,” according to music director Orcenith Smith.

Sunday’s concert, part of a 15th annual campuswide celebration of the arts, will be given at 3 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, located within DePauw’s Green Center for the Performing Arts.

In the Mahler family, Gustav was the second of 14 children. Many of his siblings did not survive. His father often browbeat his mother, and his Jewish heritage counted against him at many turns in his life. Ultimately finding a highly respected career as an opera conductor, he turned to writing symphonies during his summers in the Alps.

It was here, in these symphonic soundscapes, Smith notes, that the composer found escape. As Mahler stated, “composing a symphony means, to me, building a new world with every available technical means.”

“For him, as well, the world of nature and the sounds of his heritage were often juxtaposed in a world of good vs. evil,” the conductor added. “Mahler’s first vision of symphonic utopia finds its voice in his ‘Symphony No. 1.’”

Paired with this centerpiece symphonic performance on the ArtsFest program will be three selections from the musical “On the Town” by American composer Leonard Bernstein, who is often credited for the growing popularity of Mahler’s music over the past century.

General admission tickets to Sunday’s orchestra concert are $5. Tickets for seniors, youth and all students are free.

For more information and online purchases, visit www.music.depauw.edu. The venue’s box office will also be open beginning one hour prior to the performance.

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