Author: raulj1206

In May of this year, the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club will be traveling to the continent of Asia and embarking on a two week tour of China. As they prepare to depart, they will be presenting their send-off concert in Ann Arbor on Saturday, March 31st, at 8:00pm in the beautiful Hill Auditorium.

The men of the Glee Club will be performing music from the upcoming tour, including the musical theater classic “Luck Be a Lady” as well as a Motown Medley consisting of many favorites like “I’ll Be There”. They are also collaborating with a select group of men from the Chicago Children’s Choir in this semester’s final installment of the Chicago Brothers-In-Song program. We hope you are able to make it.

For tickets, visit ummgc.org.

Student tickets: $5
Mezzanine: $15
Main Floor: $18

Disclaimer: This post may be a little bias; I have had a platonic infatuation with Sabine Meyer and her clarinet playing for as long as I can remember.

With that said, this past weekend, Sabine Meyer (German clarinetist), and her trio di clarone (comprised of her husband and her brother), filled Rackham Auditorium with the sounds of their clarinets.

The stage was filled with an aura of talent and elegance as Ms. Meyer opened the concert with Three Arias from the Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The performance captured the essence of the bel-canto– the idea of using a musical instrument as an extension of the voice. It was as if there was a soprano sitting on stage belting out some beautiful singing.

A lot of the trio pieces performed, including the Four Arias from Cossi fan Tutte, featured the basset horn, a rare instrument in the clarinet family. As a musician, it was great to be exposed to this “rarity” of sorts.

All the Clarinet Performance students in the audience– myself included– encountered a moment of mere shock and admiration when Sabine took on Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Unaccompanied Clarinet. Mind blowing. The already demanding piece at the tempo marked was kicked up a few notches. Simply breathtaking.

Between 1935 and 1936, Carl Orff took on the endeavor of composing a piece based on 24 poems found in the medieval collection, “Carmina Burana”. The piece, composed for full symphony orchestra and mixed choir, covers an array of topics including: “the fickleness of fortune, the ephemeral nature of life,  the joy of the return of spring, the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling, and lust.”

On February 21st, at 8pm, Hill Auditorium will ring with the music of the University Symphony Orchestra and the University Choirs as they join forces to present this seminal masterpiece– one of the most well known pieces of music of the 20th century. Under the direction of Kenneth Kiesler, director of University Orchestras, this will be a night of grand music you will not want to miss. The best part: it’s free!

What: USO and University Choirs performing Carmina Burana
When: Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Where: Hill Auditorium
How much: FREE!

Ever been to a Classical Orchestra concert where the musicians are in costumes, the conductors are in costume, and the audience is in costume?! If you answered no, then you haven’t been to the annual School of Music, Theater, and Dance Halloween Concert. This Sunday, October 30th, 2011, at 4:00pm and 7:30pm, in Hill Auditorum, the orchestras of the University of Michigan will come together to provide a show that will keep everyone entertained. Excerpts from standard orchestral works will be presented  in a far less serious context than your usual Orchestral Performance. Student tickets to this event are $5. From someone who has attended for the past two years, you won’t want to miss this!