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Southern Miss Symphony to Stage "Carmina Burana," Announce Next Season |
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 |
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Contact Angela Kilcrease
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The walls will shake, the floor will rumble and, inevitably, the audience will leap to its feet the moment the final chord has died away.
The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra will present its season finale concert at 7:30 p.m. April 23 at Bennett Auditorium, featuring Carl Orff’s secular cantata “Carmina Burana,” the most commercially successful classical composition of the 20th century.
The combined forces of the symphony and Hattiesburg Choral Union, under the baton of Dr. Gregory Fuller, director of choral activities at Southern Miss, take the stage in this breathtaking season finale.
Prior to the concert, Dr. Michael Miles, director of the School of Music, will announce the next season for the symphony.
According to the orchestra’s music director Jay Dean, the 89th season will be “filled with spectacular orchestral masterworks, dynamic operas, two world premieres and of course, the announcement of yet another spectacular celebrity to perform with the symphony.”
Southern Miss piano faculty member Amber Shay Nicholson will open the concert in a spirited tour de force of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. From the opening piano statement to the rousing finale, this work represents Beethoven's originality at its best -- poetry, drama, humor, and beauty all fully represented.
“I am thrilled to be able to perform this concerto with the Southern Miss Symphony Orchestra,” Nicholson said. “I have loved this concerto for a long time, as it is in many ways unique among Beethoven's concerto output and is still viewed as a landmark in the development of this genre.”
Nicholson holds a doctorate in piano performance from Eastman School of Music and has been a member of the keyboard faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi since 2004. In addition to teaching and adjudicating, she performs regularly as both a solo pianist and a collaborative artist.
Her honors include being the only United States citizen to be accepted into the 2001 TCU/Van Cliburn International Piano Institute in Fort Worth, Texas. And, from 1996-2004, Nicholson was named a Liberace Scholar at Eastman School of Music and received scholarship support from the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts.
The Symphony’s 2008-09 season is sponsored by BancorpSouth. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert are $20/$18/$16 ($6 for students) and may be purchased at the Southern Miss Ticket Office by calling 601.266.5418 or 800.844.8425. Tickets may be ordered online at www.southernmisstickets.com.
For more information, on the Web visit www.usm.edu/symphony or contact Angela Kilcrease at 601.266.4988.
About The University of Southern MississippiThe University of Southern Mississippi, founded in 1910, is a comprehensive doctoral and research-extensive university fulfilling its mission of being a leading university in engaging and empowering individuals to transform lives and communities. In a tradition of leadership for student development, Southern Miss is educating a 21st century work force providing intellectual capital, cultural enrichment and innovation to Mississippi and the world. Southern Miss is located in Hattiesburg, Miss, with an additional campus and teaching and research sites on the Mississippi Gulf Coast; further information is found at www.usm.edu.
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