Department of Fine Arts, Music Program to fashion high-spirited annual spring concert
The Department of Fine Arts and the Waynesburg University Music Program will present its annual spring concert Saturday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 25 at 2:30 p.m. The event will be held in the Goodwin Performing Arts Center. Admission is free, reservations are suggested and the public is cordially invited to attend.
The Music Program, featuring the University’s Symphonic Band and Lamplighter Concert Choir, will present, “Praise, Belief, Hope and Liberty.”
“The repertoire for both ensembles is inspiring, as well as challenging,” said Ronda DePriest, assistant professor of instrumental music and director of the Music Program at Waynesburg University. “The Symphonic Band has focused on works by American composers this semester.”
The wind band will present a new arrangement by Michael Sweeney of Leonard Bernstein’s The Mass and a Walter Beeler transcription of Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait.
The 50-member symphonic band, under the direction of DePriest, will also present works by Howard Hanson, Edwin Franko Goldman and Joseph Willcox Jenkins, a Pennsylvania native and a professor emeritus at Duquesne University. A well-known Sousa march will be kept in reserve to offer the audience a final slice of Americana.
The Lamplighters will perform under the direction of Melanie Catana, instructor of music and director of vocal music at Waynesburg University.
The choir will focus on praise, belief and hope, beginning with an acapella piece with an African Swahili chorus called O Sifuni Mungu, based on the popular hymn, All Creatures of Our God and King. The 50-member choir will also perform two opera choruses including Va Pensiero from the Verdi Chorus found in the third act of the four-act opera Nabucco. The Lamplighter women will perform the Humming Chorus from Puccini's Madame Butterfly.
The Lamplighters will conclude with Make Our Garden Grow from Candide and Anne Herring’s Easter Song proclaiming “Christ is Risen!”
A reception will be held in the lobby following the Saturday concert.
For more information or to reserve seats, contact Dr. Ronda DePriest at rdepries@waynesburg.edu or 724-852-3420.
Founded in 1849 by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Waynesburg University is located on a traditional campus in the hills of southwestern Pennsylvania, with three adult centers located in the Pittsburgh region. The University is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and is one of only 27 Bonner Scholar schools in the country, offering local, regional and international opportunities to touch the lives of others through service.
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Released April 14, 2010
Contact: Pam Cunningham, Assistant Director of University Relations
724.852.3384 or pcunning@waynesburg.edu