"Music of the Americas" at the Rozsa
Michigan Tech's 90-voice Concert
Choir unveils a program selected for the Choir's upcoming tour of Brazil
in its spring concert, "Music of the Americas," on Sunday, April
21, at 3:00 p.m. in the Rozsa Center. Dr. Milton Olsson, chair of the
Fine Arts Department, conducts the choir in a variety of choral music
from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, including jazz, spirituals,
folk songs. Highlights include "Silverly"
by Canadian composer Bruce Ruddell, which Olsson describes as "a
lush array of vocal colors with a magical piano part, producing an enchanting
sound picture." Mexico is represented by the sixteenth-century composer
Juan de Lienas. Brazilian songs include music by leading modern composers
C.A. Pinta Fonseca ("Muié Rendera," based on Brazilian
folk songs) and Ernani Aguiar ("Salmo 150," or Psalm 150), plus
"The Girl from Ipanema" in a new arrangement by Olsson. Pinta
Fonseca directs Brazil's internationally-recognized choir, the Ars Nova
Coral, which will host the Michigan Tech choir in a joint performance
during this summer's tour. The United States is celebrated
music by Virgil Thomson, Randall Thompson, Vincent Persichetti, William
Dawson, Hall Johnson, Jack Halloran and Milton Olsson, which includes
a selection by student jazz singers and the premiere of Olsson's setting
of Ben Johnson's poem "Drink to me only with thine eyes." Pianist
Neil Paynter will perform "Vano Empeno," a danze for solo piano
by Puerto Rican composer Juan Morel Campos. The Concert Choir's August
2002 tour of Brazil will be its first visit to South America. During two
weeks in Brazil, the choir will present concerts in Rio de Janeiro, Sao
Paulo, Ouro Preto, Belo Horizonte, Petropolis, Salvador, and Manaus. They
are one of a handful of U.S. choirs to tour Brazil, so interest in the
visit is high, according to tour organizers. The tours emphasize people-to-people
contacts, and often include joint appearances (and home visits) with local
choirs. The Concert Choir makes an
international tour every three years. After visiting Mexico in 1990, the
choir made three trips to central and eastern Europe (including, in 1999,
Ukraine, the Baltic States, and St. Petersburg, Russia) before choosing
Brazil as its 2002 destination. Tickets for "Music of
the Americas" are available from Rozsa Center Ticketing Services
(487-3200), the SDC Central Ticket Office, Memorial Union Tech Express,
and www.tickets.mtu.edu for $8 general, $4 students ($1 more at the door). 04/15/02
Photo
taken in St. Petersburg, Russia, in August 1999.