BGSU College of Musical Arts faculty member Jacqueline Leclair (oboe) will participate in an experimental musical performance at the Toledo Museum of Art at 3 p.m. this Sunday. Click on the link below to read an article from the Toledo Blade about the upcoming performance.
Monthly Archives: September 2010
Bowling Green opera students to perform Mozart and Handel works
From stage lights to sunlight, audiences at Bowling Green State University’s next Opera Theater production will see a double bill of Mozart and Handel. Mozart’s “The Impresario” and Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.
“The Impresario,” one of Mozart’s early works, is a delightful glimpse into the backstage world of opera, complete with rich bankers, poor impresarios and dueling divas. In the comic opera with spoken dialogue, Gottlieb Stephanie’s libretto is combined with Mozart’s score, which he created as an entry for a musical competition.
Originally written in Italian, “Acis and Galatea” is a pastoral tale of love between a demigoddess and a simple shepherd who is threatened by a crude cyclops. The secondary characters provide humor without diminishing the audience’s capacity to sympathize with the main characters.
The production’s co-directors are Darin Kerr, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Theater and Film, and Dr. Ronald Shields, department chair. Dr. Emily Freeman Brown, director of BGSU orchestral activities, is the musical director. The performance will be sung in English with English supertitles.
The cast of “The Impresario” includes sopranos Rachel Snitzer, a vocal performance major from Forest City, Iowa, in the role of Miss Silverpeal, and Rebecca Eaddy, a graduate student in vocal performance from Milan, Mich., as Madame Goldentrill. In addition to co-directing, Kerr will play the speaking role of Mr. Scruples. Performing the role of Mr. Bluff is baritone Ryan Jones from Columbus, a senior majoring in vocal performance. Tenor John Carmack, a graduate student in vocal performance from Willoughby, will appear as Mr. Angel.
The cast of “Acis and Galatea” will include tenor Greg Ashe from Huber Heights in the tile role of Acis. Galatea will be played by soprano Jing Lin, a graduate student in vocal performance from Putian, China. Also in the cast are Jake Wilder from Van Wert, a senior in vocal performance, as Damond; soprano Amanda Deboer, a doctoral candidate in contemporary studies in vocal performance from Bellevue, Neb., as Demetrius, and mezzo-soprano Kaleigh Butcher, a graduate student from St. Louis, Mo., studying vocal performance, as Octavia. Baritone Stephen Maus, from El Paso, Texas, will perform the role of Polypheme.
Advance tickets are $12 for adults and $9 for senior citizens. On the day of the performance, tickets will be $15 for adults and $12 for students and senior citizens. Tickets can be purchased at the Moore Musical Arts Center box office weekdays from noon to 6 p.m. or by calling 419-372-8171 or toll-free 1-800-589-2224.
You can learn more about the opera and hear from the performers and faculty by clicking here.
Prize-winning composer to speak at music college convocation
Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon will be the special guest speaker for the Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts’ annual “All College Convocation” at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 10 in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.
The Wind Symphony, directed by director of bands Dr. Bruce Moss, will perform Higdon’s “Fanfare Ritmico” (cq) on the afternoon program.
As part of the college’s events honoring the University’s yearlong centennial celebration, Higdon will also spend time with composition students during her visit.
This past spring, Higdon received her second Grammy Award when her “Percussion Concerto” was named Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In addition, she received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her “Violin Concerto.” She was also selected as one of the University’s top 100 alumni for the Centennial Alumni Awards at the April event on campus.
After graduating from BGSU in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in flute performance, Higdon received master’s and doctoral degrees in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and an artist diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she is now on the composition faculty. Her work has been commissioned and performed by orchestras across the country, and she has received many prestigious awards and fellowships.
Her teachers at Bowling Green included Dr. Marilyn Shrude, Dr. Burton Beerman, Dr. Wallace DePue, Judith Bentley and Robert Spano, who directed the Bowling Green Philharmonia from 1985-89.