MSU Symphony Orchestra announces 2010-11 season

Contact: Kathleen Adams, (517) 353-9958, adamsk10@msu.edu

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra announces its 2010-11 season, which promises an exciting, diverse repertoire and renowned guest artists – all notable soloists who perform with major orchestras.

Maestro Leon Gregorian, music director-conductor of MSU orchestras, promises high quality performances from the 110-member ensemble made up of the top student musicians in the College of Music.

“When people come and hear this orchestra play,” Gregorian says, “if they close their eyes, they will not know that young people are playing. We don’t play miniatures. We play the same repertoire that the big orchestras in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Boston play. We may have more rehearsals, but that’s the advantage of being a first-class university ensemble. We certainly have the talent.”

The diverse repertoire includes classics by Beethoven, Debussy, Bartok, Brahms, and Saint-Saëns as well as two world premiere concertos.

MSU Symphony Orchestra lineup includes:
Concert 1: Saturday, September 25, 2010, 8 p.m., Wharton Center, Leon Gregorian, conductor The MSU Symphony Orchestra opens the season with Rossini’s William Tell Overture. This well known, energetic piece is particularly familiar to audiences through its use in television and radio shows of The Lone Ranger, and because of its prominence in several films.

Joining the orchestra for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, is Ralph Votapek, a legend among the Lansing musical community, the gold medalist of the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and winner of the prestigious Naumburg Award. Votapek, professor emeritus of piano at MSU, will perform this brilliant concerto, which includes one of the most challenging cadenzas in the classical piano repertoire.

The concert will conclude with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 portraying possibly the composer’s most important and popular work. Written in 1937, this piece marked his acceptance by the Soviet regime, which had openly criticized his earlier music as being too technical and complex.