Department of Music

The Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra will partner with the Virginia Opera in Norfolk and the University Singers in presenting its next concert, "Evening at the Opera,” on Valentine’s Day weekend. The concert features operatic highlights representing love in its many forms. The concert will be on Saturday, February 14 at 8:00pm at Old Cabell Hall, with a second performance on Sunday, February 15 at 3:30pm at Monticello High School.

Joining the orchestra and Music Director Kate Tamarkin are UVA’s own University Singers and guest soloists from the Virginia Opera including soprano Veronica Mitina, mezzo-soprano Layna Chianakas, and baritone Jonathan Carle. They have chosen a wide variety of operatic highlights that include arias, duets, and choruses, plus some wonderful excerpts for orchestra. With the weekend emphasis on romantic love, each of the operas represented deals with some aspect of love in its comic or tragic guises. Selections will include pieces from Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Bizet’s Carmen, Saint-Saëns Samson and Delilah, and much more.

Free pre-concert lectures will be held 45 minutes before each concert on both days. Saturday’s lecture will be held at nearby Minor Hall on the UVA Grounds. Sunday’s lecture will be held in the Forum at Monticello High School. They will be led by McIntire Department of Music Associate Professor Richard Will. In addition, Ms. Tamarkin leads her popular “Noon Notes” lecture series on Friday, February 13, at noon, in the Northside branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.