Department of Music

• Saturday, November 7, 2009
• Old Cabell Hall
• 8:00pm

• Sunday, November 8, 2009
• Monticello High School
• 3:30pm
• 
  $20-$35 adults: $10 students. UVA students may request one complimentary ticket in advance.

The Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra continues its 2009-10 Musical Postcards season with “Vive la France” on Saturday, November 7, at 8:00 p.m., at Old Cabell Hall on the UVA Grounds, and Sunday, November 8, at 3:30 p.m. at Monticello High School in Charlottesville.

The second program of the season celebrates the musical palette of France. Maurice Durufle’s Requiem and two works by Claude Debussy - “Danses Sacred and Profane” and “La Mer” (The Sea) - explore both the spiritual and earthbound worlds in a ravishing salute to French genius.

UVA Assistant Professor of Music Michael Slon will conduct mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke, baritone Sumner Thompson and UVA’s eighty-member University Singers in the Requiem. CUSO Music Director Kate Tamarkin will lead the Debussy works. “Danses Sacred and Profane” features the orchestra’s Principal Harpist, Anastasia Jellison.

Cherry Duke has performed with opera companies and symphony orchestras from coast to coast. A Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions New York District Winner, she has sung title roles in “Hansel and Gretel,” “Der Rosenkavalier,” “The Rape of Lucretia,” and “Carmen” as well as numerous principal roles. In concert, she has been a featured soloist in major choral works. Ms. Duke was first introduced to Charlottesville audiences in her portrayal of Nellie Forbrush in Ash Lawn Opera’s production of “South Pacific.”

Sumner Thompson is one of today’s most sought-after young baritones. His appearances on the operatic stage include roles in the Boston Early Music Festival’s productions of Conradi’s “Ariadne” and Lully’s “Pysché,” and several European tours with Contemporary Opera Denmark as Orfeo in Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo.” He has performed across North America as a soloist with Concerto Palatino, Tafelmusic, Apollo’s Fire, Les Boreades de Montréal, Les Voix Baroques, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the King’s Noyse, Mercury Baroque and the symphony orchestras of Charlotte, Memphis and Phoenix.

Anastasia Jellison’s extensive experience as an orchestral harpist includes performances with the Houston Symphony, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra as well as Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera and Opera Roanoke. She debuted with the Roanoke Symphony in a performance of Bartok’s
“Concerto for Orchestra” and was named Principal Harp there in 2005. Ms. Jellison is on
the faculty of the Brevard Summer Institute and Festival in North Carolina and also teaches at the University of Richmond, University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary and Washington and Lee University.

Free pre-concert lectures will be held 45 minutes before each concert on both days. Saturday’s lecture will take place in Minor Hall. Sunday’s lecture will be held in the Forum at Monticello High School. Both will be presented by Mcintire Department of Music Associate Professor Richard Will.

“Noon Notes,” a free popular lecture series by Music Director Kate Tamarkin, will be offered on Friday, November 6, at 12:00 p.m. in the Northside Branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.

Free parking is available in the UVA Central Grounds Parking Garage, located on Emmet Street, on Saturday night and at the high school on Sunday afternoons.

Tickets are priced at $35, $30, $25 and $20 for adults, and $10 for students. UVA students may request one complimentary ticket in advance. Tickets may be purchased at The University of Virginia Arts Box Office, (434) 924-3376, 12:00-5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday in the lobby of the Drama Building at 109 Culbreth Road, or on-line at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu.

Remaining dates in the Musical Postcards season are “Heartland of Europe” on February 13-14, “English Variations” on March 27-28 and “The New World” on April 24-25. Subscription tickets are still available through the UVA Arts Box Office.

Additional programs include the Family Holiday Concerts on December 5-6 and two performances by the Chamber Orchestra of Charlottesville on January 30-31 featuring works by Britten, Elgar and Haydn.