IU Jacobs School of Music 2009-10 Season To Include Four New Opera and Ballet Theater Productions

Continuing its tradition of nurturing and presenting the world's greatest musicians, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music offers four new IU Opera and Ballet Theater Productions during its 2009-10 season, in addition to a host of performances by orchestral, choral and wind ensembles, jazz combos and bands, chamber music groups, percussion ensembles, soloists and many others.

The Jacobs School season begins Sept. 5 and 6 with "Bach and Beyond: A Marathon Organ Recital" by the Jacobs School of Music Organ Department in conjunction with Bloomington's Fourth Street Festival. Throughout the two-day arts festival, up to 26 recitalists will play 30-minute organ recitals, composed of music from Johann Sebastian Bach and other masters of the instrument. The church will be open to all throughout the festival, and the recital is free of charge.

Jacobs Professor David Effron will take the podium to lead the IU Philharmonic Orchestra Sept. 16 at the Musical Arts Center, commencing the orchestral season. The program will include Verdi's Overture to Nabucco, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture and Strauss's Don Quixote, Op. 35. Featured performers will be Jacobs faculty members Alexander Kerr, violin, and Eric Kim, cello, as well as Michael Strauss, violist from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

IU Opera Theater will introduce its 61st season with the opening night performance, Sept. 25, of Gioachino Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri. This dramma giocoso will include the IU Opera debut of renowned conductor Arthur Fagen, a recently appointEd Jacobs professor.

"L'Italiana is fresh, funny and full of melodies: great showpiece arias for all the characters, and hilarious and virtuosic ensembles that both amuse and astonish for their complexity and brilliance," said stage director Vincent Liotta, Jacobs professor. "All in all, L'Italiana in Algeri is a carefree and joyous musical comedy evening."

Before Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will be in concert Oct. 11 at the Musical Arts Center with violinist Kerr.

Legendary teacher and violinist Josef Gingold will be honored Nov. 1 in a memorial concert at the IU Auditorium.

An elaborate new production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), co-produced with The Atlanta Opera, will round out IU Opera Theater's fall semester. The spectacle will boast 13 different scenes and include numerous large, fanciful puppets.

"This year's Fall Ballet features a tribute to Serge Diaghilev -- whose company, Ballet Russes, had its premiere 100 years ago this year -- and who had a profound impact on the art of ballet around the world," said Michael Vernon, chair of the Department of Ballet.

Some other fall events to look forward to include a comprehensive lecture/recital series by Jacobs faculty composer and pianist Don Freund about Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (beginning Sept. 13), the New Music Ensemble at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater (Oct. 9 and 10), and a Jacobs faculty recital featuring Andre Watts, piano; Jaime Laredo, violin; Nokuthula Ngwenyama, viola; and Sharon Robinson, cello (Oct. 17). The Pro Arte Singers and Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jacobs faculty member William Jon Gray, will present J. S. Bach's Mass in B Minor on Nov. 11.

In December, Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, with choreography by Vernon, will continue its Bloomington holiday tradition.

"The Spring Ballet is a tribute to how the 'new' art of ballet has quickly flourished in this country and is now one of the mainstays of the American cultural scene," said Vernon.

IU Opera Theater's spring season will include Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor, a new production of Puccini's La Rondine (The Swallow) and Bernstein's dynamic West Side Story.

March 27 marks the return of IU's Singing Hoosiers for the popular music group's annual concert at the IU Auditorium. Jacobs faculty member Richard Tang Yuk will conduct the Oratorio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn's Elijah on April 21; and the annual Big Band Extravaganza will swing the MAC on April 24 with IU jazzmen David N. Baker and Brent Wallarab.

The breadth and number of performance opportunities at the IU Jacobs School of Music are unparalleled in college music study, with the school offering more than 1,100 performances a year, including seven fully staged operas on a stage comparable in size to that of the Metropolitan Opera House.

For a complete listing of the season's events, go to http://www.music.indiana.edu/events.

 

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