Student Symphony
Sat, December 11th, 2010
9:00 pm
- This event has passed.
Jacob Walls ’11 and Dan Kohane ’12, directors
The Williams College Department of Music presents the Williams Student Symphony directed by students Jacob Walls ’11 and Dan Kohane ’12 on Saturday, Dec. 11 at 8 p.m. in Chapin Hall on the Williams College campus. This free event is open to the public.
Few people outside the music department at Williams College realize that there are actually two whole and entirely separate symphony orchestras on campus. The Williams Student Symphony might get overlooked if it were not so special. This “second” orchestra is by no means “just” a pick-up band staffed by talented music students. Including no professional musicians, its quality is peer-driven, and students are given responsibility at all levels as soloists, conductors, managers, composers, arrangers, and accompanists. The intensity of student involvement brings with it the spirit to innovate. Programming is progressive and includes more work by students and more pieces which have resonance with a young generation of musicians. This concert is no different, featuring works by or inspired by Bach, as well as great works of the 20th century. Led by directors Jacob Walls ’11 and Dan Kohane ’12, this program includes music from Bach’s The Musical Offering as transcribed by Anton Webern, Aaron Copland’s earnest essay in sound Two Pieces for String Orchestra, Steve Reich’s darkly expressive Triple Quartet, and an early work by Stravinsky, which is Bach-inspired: the energetic Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, an inspiration provided by the Brandenburg Concertos.
Like the other orchestra at Williams, there is no fee charged for admission to The Williams Student Symphony. With a musical offering as challenging and original as this, that is a price that will surely delight any concert-goer.
The Williams College Student Symphony is a 50-member orchestra conducted and administered by students, Jacob Walls ’11 and Dan Kohane ’12 with sponsorship by the Department of Music. The Student Symphony performs two times per year.
Past repertoire has included traditional orchestral works such as Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, Brahms’s Tragic Overture, and Smetana’s Moldau. The orchestra has also performed 20th-century American music by Ives, Copland, and Barber. In addition, award-winning composer Donald Erb visited the Symphony to supervise a rehearsal of Treasure in the Snow, a work of his which was then presented in a spring concert. The Symphony also performs works by student composers, including Celestial Episode by Judd Greenstein ’01 and Gesture I by Andrea Mazzariello ’00.