Students ready for DPU Orchestra season-opening concert Sunday

Violinist Mei Fujisato, a junior in the DePauw School of Music, rehearses with the University Orchestra for its season opening concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2 at the Green Center for the Performing Arts. Among the works on the program will be the suite from Stravinsky’s landmark Firebird ballet.

Courtesy photo

Students in the DePauw University Orchestra, led by music director Professor Orcenith Smith, are focused on preparing for their first concert of the season on Oct. 2 — which will take place at an earlier hour than usual this Sunday.

The matinee in Kresge Auditorium has been scheduled for 2 p.m. in order to allow interested audience members who would also enjoy attending the final performance of the DePauw Theatre/School of Music production of “Company” to do so at 4 p.m. in Moore Theatre, the neighboring venue on the first floor of the DePauw Green Center for the Performing Arts.

The opening of the DePauw Orchestra’s season highlights an impressive array of different styles. The one-hour program will begin with the “Festive Overture” by Dmitri Shostakovich, followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 1.” Igor Stravinsky’s 1919 suite from “The Firebird “ballet will conclude the concert.

According to the conductor, “this year’s orchestra is very talented, and they are devouring this very different material with great appetite.”

“The Shostakovich, written in just three days to meet a commission deadline, is a triumphant and energetic opening to the program. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 shows all that he had learned from studying with great classical symphonist Franz Josef Haydn and an appreciation of his teacher’s sense of humor about musical style,” Smith said.

“The Firebird suite is a landmark for Stravinsky, since it was his first major ballet score. Using Russian legend to imagine a different tapestry of sound, the fantastic characters in the music, like the Firebird and the evil King Katschei, are written in unusual language, while the humans in the legend are cast in a more tonal scheme.”

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

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