{"id":1045,"date":"2019-07-17T18:19:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wcsu.wpengine.com\/news-archives\/wcsursopartnertoofferconcertseries\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:19:10","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:19:10","slug":"wcsursopartnertoofferconcertseries","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wcsursopartnertoofferconcertseries\/","title":{"rendered":"2013 WCSU, Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra partner to offer concert series"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"ImageDANBURY, CONN. <\/strong>\u2014 Western Connecticut State University<\/a> and the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra<\/a> will launch a new chamber concert series featuring RSO musicians and WCSU music faculty at Ives Concert Hall in White Hall on the university\u2019s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury, beginning in October.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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The first concert in the series will be at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013<\/strong>.\u00a0 The program will have four selections by American composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Charles Ives and William Bolcom, and will feature three different ensembles. General admission tickets are $25. Tickets for students, seniors and WCSU faculty\/staff are $15. WCSU students with valid I.D. will be admitted free. To purchase tickets, go to tickets.com<\/a> selecting Ives Concert Hall as the venue, or call the WCSU Box office at (203) 837-TIXX.<\/p>\n

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The series is the result of a collaboration between WCSU President James W. Schmotter, Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts Dr. Dan Goble, Department of Music Chair and Jazz Studies Area Coordinator Jamie Begian, RSO Music Director Jerry Steichen, RSO President Donna Case and RSO Executive Director Gina Wilson.<\/p>\n

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Goble said, \u201cThe upcoming chamber music series, featuring members of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and WCSU music faculty represents the first step in a partnership that will bring quality classical music to a broad audience \u2026 all in an educational setting. The idea is to enhance the musical education of WCSU students, while providing the region with great classical music performed by outstanding professional performing artists. The new partnership will take advantage of Western\u2019s new concert hall \u2014 part of the 130,000-square-foot Visual and Performing Arts Center scheduled to open in fall 2014 on the Westside campus, only eight miles from the RSO\u2019s current performance venue at Ridgefield High School.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wilson added, \u201cThe Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to partner with Western Connecticut State University to present a series of chamber concerts this season. A collaboration between professional musicians from the academic and performing worlds, including RSO music director Jerry Steichen, the series will feature rich programming and the highest quality of musical performance.\u201d <\/p>\n

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A string quartet will open the Oct. 27 concert with Copland\u2019s \u201cTwo Pieces for String Quartet.\u201d The Rondino movement is a round, with fast passages for upper strings alternating with slower, expressive melodies in lower strings. This ensemble also will play the finale, Barber\u2019s \u201cString Quartet in B minor.\u201d The latter\u2019s middle movement is the stupendous Molto Adagio, which Barber later arranged for full string orchestra. \u201cAdagio for Strings\u201d is Barber\u2019s most famous piece and was played at the radio announcement of President Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s death and also at Albert Einstein\u2019s funeral. It is just as poignant in the string quartet setting.<\/p>\n

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The second ensemble plays the second piece, William Bolcom\u2019s four-movement Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano. Bolcom is a well-known pianist and professor emeritus of composition at the University of Michigan. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1988. The second movement, titled \u201cBrutal, fast,\u201d is aptly named. It is a furious romp for piano and violin, which the composer describes as containing \u201cone of the toughest passages for piano I have ever written.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In deference to the composer after whom the concert venue is named \u2014 Danbury\u2019s Charles Ives, a composer of international renown, the third ensemble will perform his \u201cLargo for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano.\u201d An expressive song for violin over modern piano harmonies begins and ends the piece, with an energetic middle section for all three instruments.<\/p>\n

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The performers will be pianist and RSO Music Director Jerry Steichen; violinist Jorge \u00c1vila, the orchestra\u2019s concertmaster; violinists Sylvia Padegs Grendze and Victoria Paterson; violists Suzanne Corey Sahlin and Hannah Levinson; cellist Melissa Westgate; and Edward Wojtowicz, the orchestra\u2019s principal clarinetist.<\/p>\n

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For more information, call the WCSU Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8774 or the RSO at (203) 438-3889.<\/p>\n

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Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York.\u00a0 Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England\u2019s best small private universities.<\/em><\/p>\n

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