USM Chamber Singers and Wind Ensemble to perform

Two elite musical ensembles at the University of Southern Maine School of Music will perform April 25 and 26 in Corthell Concert Hall on the USM Gorham campus. Tickets for either concert are $6 for the general public; $3 for seniors and students. Call the Music Box Office at 780-5555 for reservations.

The USM Chamber Singers, directed by Dr. Robert Russell, will perform at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 25. They represent the most outstanding singers at the University of Southern Maine. Chosen through a careful audition process, these undergraduate students perform a diverse repertory centered on a cappella literature of the Renaissance era and the twentieth century, and music of various world cultures.

The singers received wide acclaim in April 2000 for a performance of the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. They have made several tours to Europe – in 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2008 – singing in some of the most beautiful churches and halls of western Europe, including a performance at Notre Dame in Paris and a Sunday Mass performance at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Robert Russell is professor of music at the University of Southern Maine and music director of Portland’s Choral Art Society.

The Chamber Singers’ program, includes “Les Chansons des Roses” by Morten Lauridsen, a five-part song cycle based on poems written in French by Rainer Maria Rilke on the subject of roses; Carlo Monteverdi’s “Ecco Mormorar L'Onde,” a madrigal setting of Torquato Tasso's description of sunrise -- both music and text move from darkness to bright sunlight; an adaptation by USM faculty member Bruce Fithian of “American Triptych”; Mark Hayes’ arrangement of “Shut De Do,” a calypso tune by Randy Stonehill; “Witness,” a traditional Spiritual; “Si Ch'io Vorrei Morire” by Claudio Monterverdi, a Renaissance madrigal from his Fourth Book of Madrigals; “Wana Baraka,’ a traditional Kenyan religious song; and the Middle Eastern sounding “Dodi Li,” by Nira Chen with text from the Hebrew Canticle of Solomon.

The next day, the USM Wind Ensemble, directed by Dr. Peter Martin, will take the stage at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 26 for its performance. The program includes the seldom heard “The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare” by Percy Grainger which includes an antiphonal horn solo by senior Sophie Flood; and Bach’s “Fugue a la Gigue,” originally written for organ, arranged for wind band by Gustav Holst.

These will be followed by Gordan Jacobs’ “Old Wine in New Bottles,” a collection of four pieces based on four English folk tunes. The themes of the original songs ranged from a woman’s complaint for a lost lover, the death of a knight, and a lady roaming with gypsies. The longest work (15 minutes) of the concert is Herbert Haufrecht’s “Symphony for Brass and Timpani.”

Following a brief staging pause, the concert will conclude with the debut of a student-run chamber orchestra conducted by Craig Ouellette. The 32-member orchestra will perform the first movement of Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Symphony 45 in F Minor,” and the overture to Beethoven’s “Leonore.”