USM Southern Chorale and Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra Present Music of the Night April 30

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Symphony Orchestra and the Southern Mississippi Southern Chorale proudly present the final concert of the 2018-19 season, “Music of the Night,” on April 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Main Street Baptist Church in Hattiesburg. This is an encore performance of part of the program from New York City's Carnegie Hall the previous week.

For this program, the Symphony Orchestra and the Southern Chorale join forces to present two haunting works based on themes associated with the night: Debussy's Nocturnes and Kõrvits' “Moorland Elegies”. A special documentary of “Moorland Elegies” will be shown with the composer giving comments and answering questions at 6:00 p.m. just before the performance on Main Street.

The Southern Mississippi Orchestra will be conducted by Dr. Michael Miles, and the Southern Chorale will be conducted by Dr. Gregory Fuller.

“Beautiful, haunting and entrancing sounds emerge from the orchestra in works by Impressionist and contemporary composers,” said Director of Orchestral Activities Dr. Michael Miles. “When light fades, the night truly comes alive in this evocative finish to the season.”

Claude Debussy is known as one of the leading composers of the Impressionist period.  His music evokes impressions of scenes rather than attempting to evoke deeply felt emotions as in programmatic music.  The Nocturnes are a work evoking scenes of movement and light in the dark, rather than the dark as the title would convey.

Recently premiered in the US by the Southern Chorale and the Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, “Moorland Elegies” is an award-winning nine-part cycle based on a collection of poems by Emily Brontë.

“[It] is a journey into the darkest, most mysterious corners of loneliness: to where one doesn't dare to peek twice.” Said the composer, Kõrvits, about the piece.

Composer Tõnu Kõrvits is considered a rising star of Estonian contemporary music, having had music performed by various ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Kõrvits has also received numerous awards including the Heino Eller Music Prize, the Young Artist Prize by the Board of the President's Cultural Foundation, and the Lepo Sumera Award for Composition.

Main Street Baptist Church is located on 11 Main Street Boulevard in Hattiesburg, MS.

For tickets, call (800) 844-8425, (601) 266-5418, or go to southernmisstickets.com.