On Saturday, May 11, the Brockport College-Community Orchestra, conducted by Scott Horsington, will join the Brockport College-Community Chorus, under the direction of Elizabeth Banner, for a concert in which both ensembles will perform Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria.” The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage, 180 Holley Street, Brockport. Tickets are $17 general, $12 for senior citizens, Brockport alumni, faculty and staff, $9 for students, and are available online at http://fineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at 395-2787, or in person at the Tower box office.
The “Gloria” being performed at the concert is one of two that Vivaldi wrote, which were both quite similar to each other. Even musicologists are not sure of the exact occasion for which Vivaldi wrote either “Gloria” or when precisely they were written, or when first performed. However, they both fell into 200 years of obscurity. Unveiled at a concert in 1939, the “Gloria” being taken on by the Brockport ensembles has become one of the most popular of all choral-orchestral works.
Horsington is “very excited to collaborate with the chorus. It’s been three years since our last joint concert, and both ensembles have developed a great deal since then. This will be a great opportunity to showcase the talents of Brockport students – and community members – as well as the continued growth of Brockport’s music program.” On their own, the Orchestra will perform the “Divertimento for Strings” by Einojuhani Rautavaara, who was the most prominent Finnish composer since Sibelius. Horsington adds that it is “a piece that is strikingly different from the ‘Gloria’ in form and sound.”
The Chorus will also be performing several selections prior to being joined by the orchestra, including an arrangement of the African folk song “Bonse Aba” and a gospel-tinged setting of the popular hymn “Amazing Grace.” They will also be performing the Orazio Vecchi’s Baroque madrigal “So ben mi, c’ha bon tempo,” and a contemporary setting by David Dickau of Henry Heveningham’s 17th century poem “If Music Be the Food of Love,” inspired by the first line of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
More information about The College at Brockport’s Fine Arts Series can be found at Facebook, or at brockport.edu/academics/fine_arts.
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