Decoda to give final performances of two-year DePauw residence

Friday, November 18, 2016
As Decoda’s two-year residency at DePauw University comes to a close, for its final visit to Greencastle, the New York-based ensemble will give a collaborative concert with the DePauw Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21 at the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium and appear on the Storytellers@M2 series on Sunday, Nov. 20. Rehearsing (from left) are Decoda violinist Anna Elashvili with DePauw orchestra members Allison Emata, Alec Barker and Jack Hallier.
DePauw photo/Suzanne Hassler

As we prepare to gather with others during Thanksgiving, the DePauw University Orchestra and Music on the Square (M2) are working on two unique collaborations for special Thanksgiving week programs with the Decoda ensemble.

Praised by Time Out, New York as “a new collective of some of the brightest young classical musicians in the world,” the New York-based chamber group has served as the ensemble-in-residence at DePauw since fall 2015.

Decoda will close out its two-year residency with a collaborative performance with the DePauw University Orchestra, conducted by Professor Orcenith Smith, at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 21, in the Green Center’s Kresge Auditorium.

“As families and friends gather, we thought it fitting to put together a program that provides interaction between the students and Decoda members in a similar way,” Smith said. “We’ve already had several layers of positive accomplishment while determining program content from a buffet of music that would provide for side-by-side involvement, proper flow of musical contrast, use of Decoda’s unique instrumentation and hit a variety of different musical styles.

“The outcome will be a tight, enjoyable, artistic product for all of the performers and for the audience.”

String players from both ensembles will open the program with Heinrich Biber’s dramatic baroque masterpiece Battalia, a multi-movement work depicting Biber’s disdain for war.

Four Decoda soloists will offer Haydn’s “Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat,” accompanied by the University Orchestra, followed by Decoda performances of Aaron Jay Kernis’s “Mozart en Route” and a movement from the Beethoven Septet. The orchestra will perform “Dance Suite” by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, and the concert concludes with “Skylife” by Turtle Island String Quartet composer David Balakrishnan.

Featured on this rock-style finale, arranged by Smith, will be improvisations by Decoda and DePauw musicians, along with improvisations between the two groups of soloists.

Prior to this collaborative concert, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20 at Music on the Square, seniors Derrick Truby and Dylan Prentice will host members of the ensemble on M2’s Storytellers series—a musical mash-up of performance, interviews, humor and candid moments that is giving local audiences a glimpse into the minds of some of the most compelling music-makers of our time.

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

For online purchases, visit the school’s website at music.depauw.edu. The venue’s box office is now open from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as one hour prior to every ticketed performance.

No tickets are needed to Sunday’s Storytellers@M2, which is open to the public to attend free of charge.

These presentations are supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Crane Group.

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