Department of Music to present annual Chancellor’s Concert April 26

Three Washington University ensembles will join forces at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 26, for the 2009 Chancellor’s Concert.

The performance, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and takes place in the 560 Music Center’s E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.

The program will open with the Washington University Jazz Band, making its first appearance in a Chancellor’s Concert. Directed by Chris Becker, the ensemble will perform a selection of big band scores.

The program then will continue with the Washington University Symphony Orchestra. Directed by Dan Presgrave, lecturer and instrumental music coordinator, the 70-plus-member orchestra will perform the overture to Leonard Bernstein’s operetta Candide (1956), followed by Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor (1845). Sophomore Sarah Fern will serve as soloist.

The orchestra will then be joined by the 60-plus-member Washington University Concert Choir, under the baton of John Stewart, director of vocal activities, for a selection of popular opera choruses. These will include the “Coronation Scene” from Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (1874), followed by the “Frost Scene” from Henry Purcell’s King Arthur (1691). Rounding out the set will be two favorites by Giuseppe Verdi: “Va pensiero” from Nabucco (1842) and the “Anvil Chorus” from Il Trovatore (1853).

To conclude the program, all three ensembles will share the stage for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s spectacular 1812 Overture (1880).

The 560 Music Center is located at 560 Trinity Ave., at the intersection with Delmar Boulevard. For more information, call (314) 935-5566 or email kschultz@artsci.wustl.edu.