Students from One of the Nation’s Premier Music Conservatories to Perform with Scranton Singers
Cheryl Y. Boga, director of Performance Music at The University of Scranton (left), and guest conductor Mark Gould will present The University of Scranton Singers and the Manhattan School of Music Brass Orchestra at a concert on Sunday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center.
Members of the Manhattan School of Music Brass Orchestra will join with The University of Scranton Singers to present a concert on Sunday, April 6, that will include the premiere of a new arrangement. The concert, which is free of charge and open to the public, will be held in the Houlihan-McLean Center beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The Manhattan School of Music Brass Orchestra, founded in 2009, is an ensemble made up of members of the school’s Brass and Percussion departments. The school, one of the nation’s premier music conservatories, has been providing programs at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral level for more than 85 years. Consisting of more than 800 students from across the globe, the school prides itself on the high caliber of not only its students, but also its faculty members.
The evening’s program will include the premiere of a new, commissioned arrangement of Joshua Rosenblum’s “The Just Man.” The work is a musical setting of a text by Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., and was originally written for choir with concert band to celebrate the inauguration of Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J., as president of the University in 1998. Rosenblum has arranged the piece especially for this performance for the brass orchestra and mixed choir.
Rosenblum is a composer, conductor, pianist, musical director and arranger with wide-ranging experience in classical, contemporary and theater music. He has written extensively for both the theater and the concert hall, and led the orchestras for thirteen Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, with a specialty in flying vehicles (including Miss Saigon, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, How the Grinch Stole Christmas). As a music journalist, he has contributed articles to Newsday and Stagebill, as well as over 400 CD and concert reviews for Opera News. He also teaches Composing for Musical Theater at Yale University.
The Brass Orchestra will be directed by its conductor and founder, Mark Gould, who retired from his post as co-principal trumpet at the Metropolitan Opera in 2003. After more than 30 years in that position, Gould is chair of the Brass Department at the Manhattan School of Music, and has been on the faculty at The Juilliard School for 30 years. Renowned for his trumpet playing and teaching, Gould has appeared as trumpeter with a majority of the most highly renowned ensembles throughout the world. He also serves as the director for The New York Trumpet Ensemble. His body of work as a soloist and recording artist includes more than 40 performances on PBS as part of the “Live at Lincoln Center” broadcasts and Grammy-winning recordings with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. His students have garnered spots in many of the major orchestras and chamber ensembles, both nationally and internationally.
The University of Scranton Singers is a 55 member SATB choral ensemble directed by Cheryl Y. Boga, director of Performance Music at the University, and made up of University students from majors spanning the curriculum. Their repertoire ranges from Palestrina and Rachmaninoff, through Stravinsky and Bernstein and Nelhybel, to Kings’ Singers arrangement of Beatles favorites. They present numerous performances each season, most of which are open to the public and all of which are offered free of charge.
For more information on this event, call 570-941-7624, e-mail music@scranton.edu or visit www.scranton.edu/music.
