March 1, 1996
EVANSTON, Ill. --- A grand celebration commemorating
a century of excellence at
Northwestern University School of Music takes place
at 8 p.m. Friday, March 1 at
Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
The program includes a gala evening of music heralding
the School of Music's glorious
past as well as its commitment to an even brighter
future.
During the first half of the concert, a multimedia presentation,
entitled "100 Years and
Counting,"and narrated by Northwestern alum Bruce Duffie,
of radio station
WNIB-FM, will take the audience on a journey through
the last century at the School
of Music. It will include a collage of slides, narration
and brief performances by the
Millar Brass conducted by Vincent Cichowicz, the Chapel
Choir conducted by
Stephen Alltop and renowned faculty members. Featured
in the performance are
William Warfield, Frederick Hemke, Sunny Joy Langton,
Karen Brunssen, Kurt
Hansen, Bruce Hall, Sylvia Wang, Richard Alderson,
Elizabeth Fischer and Michael
Kocour. Seven children of faculty members will also
perform.
These compositions will honor the School's past deans
--- Peter Christian Lutkin,
George Howerton and John Beattie. Dean Howerton, now
living in Salida, Colo., plans
to be present for the celebration.
Due to illness, baritone Sherrill Milnes will not be
able to perform at the Centennial
concert, as originally planned. Northwestern University
faculty member Mignon Dunn
will replace Mr. Milnes during the second half of the
concert. The two arias she will
sing are "Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse!" from Saint-Saens'
"Samson et Dalila" and
"Ah! que j'aime les militaries!" from Offenbach's "The
Grand-Duchess of Gerolstein."
The second half of the festival will also include brass
fanfares and flourishes, Berlioz's
"Roman Carnival" Overture and Kodaly's monumental Budapest
Te Deum performed
by a 300-member combined orchestra and chorus. Faculty
members include Langton,
Brunssen, Hansen and Hall. Victor Yampolsky will conduct
the orchestra and Robert
A. Harris will lead the chorus. Mitchell Arnold will
conduct the Brass Ensemble as they
perform a Centennial fanfare that Stanley Ryberg composed
just after the
announcement that the 1995-96 Wildcat football team
would be Rose Bowl bound.
Conductors Yampolsky and Harris are both School of Music
professors of music
performance. Each has directed and conducted orchestral
and choral ensembles,
respectively, throughout the United States and abroad.
Yampolsky founded the
Storioni Ensemble, Northwestern's resident chamber
ensemble. He is also music
director of the Peninsula Music Festival in Wisconsin,
music director of the Omaha
Symphony Orchestra and the honorary director of the
Scotia Festival of Music in Nova
Scotia. Harris is active as a choral conductor, clinician
and adjudicator through the
United States and abroad.
In addition to commemorating a century of excellence
at the Northwestern University
School of Music, the concert will also honor the memory
and life of John P. Paynter,
Northwestern's director of bands since 1953, who died
Feb. 4 at the age of 67.
There is limited availability for the post-concert reception
in the Grainger Ballroom of
Orchestra Hall. Tickets for this portion of the celebration
are $25.
Tickets to the gala concert are $6 to $35 with limited
seating in some price categories.
Northwestern faculty and staff will receive $5 off
$15 or $35 tickets.
Students have a special ticket option. Phi Mu Alpha
and Sigma Alpha Iota will be
selling $6 student vouchers on the Evanston campus
for the Orchestra Hall concert
which will entitle the bearer to the best available
seat. Selections from box seats to
lower balcony will be assigned when vouchers are turned
in the night of the concert.
Voucher proceeds will benefit fund raising efforts
by Phi Mu Alpha and Sigma Alpha
Iota.
To order tickets call (847) 467-4000. For more information
regarding Northwestern
University School of Music events call (847) 491-5441.
2/28/96