Keweenaw Symphony Presents Holiday Concert
Submitted by the fine arts department
The Department of Fine Arts
will present a gala holiday concert featuring the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra,
Michigan Tech Concert Choir, four guest vocal soloists, and the inauguration
of a new Johannus Organ in the Rozsa Center on Dec. 8 and 9, with Professor
and Chair Milton Olsson conducting. The concerts, at 8 p.m. on Saturday
and 3 p.m. on Sunday, will include performances of Gustav Gundlach's Mass
in A, Olsson's Mass for Chorus and Orchestra, a suite of carols arranged
by Robert Shaw and Robert Russell Bennett for chorus and orchestra, Gabriel
Fauré's "Cantique de Jean Racine" for choir and harp,
concluding with the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah.
The concert is sponsored by Copper Range Abstract and Title Company, with
additional funding from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
Soprano soloist Victoria Walker
of Lansing, whose dynamic voice was a highlight of MTU's May 2001 performance
of Carmina Burana, returns to join mezzo Lorna March of Iron Mountain,
tenor Anthony Beacco of Negaunee and bass Wayne Hanmer of Marquette in
an encore performance of the Gundlach Mass in A. Gundlach, grandfather
of Herman Gundlach of Houghton, was a distinguished Chicago-area organist,
choir director, and composer who wrote the Mass in A at the age of 20,
soon after emigrating from Germany. Originally scored for organ alone,
the Mass was orchestrated and edited by Olsson at the request of the Gundlach
family.
Milton Olsson's Mass for Chorus
and Orchestra premiered last year during the Rozsa Center's first season.
Audience members and musicians enjoyed the lyrical, joyful work so much
that they demanded an encore performance. Olsson conceived the Mass as
a contemporary piece that would both express the meaning of the traditional
liturgical texts and be pleasing to the audience. "My goal was to
capture the mysticism, drama, and emotion of the texts in a musical language
that was familiar but fresh," Olsson says. "I wanted to compose
a serious piece that embraces the joy of our new performance hall. I wanted
it to be a composition that says life is good, that we can dream, and
that sometimes fantasies become realities. It is my gift to the performers
and the audience who love the Rozsa Center."
The performances will feature
organist (and MTU alumnus) Eric Hepp of Rochester, Minnesota, playing
the recently installed Johannus 3000 organ, a 62-rank digital concert
instrument built to the standards of the American Guild of Organists.
Harpist John Manno will accompany the choir in Fauré's "Cantique
de Jean Racine," a setting of devotional poetry by France's immortal
poet and playwright. In celebration of the season, the choir will sing
"The Many Moods of Christmas," familiar carols arranged by the
twentieth century's most honored choral conductor, Robert Shaw, and audience
members will be invited to join chorus, orchestra, and organ in Handel's
"Hallelujah Chorus."
Tickets are available from
Rozsa Center Ticketing Services, other Michigan Tech box offices, the
Calumet Theatre, and on the web at http://www.tickets.mtu.edu
for $14 general, $5 students.
