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UF orchestra offers symphonic celebration
As far as accessible public celebrations go, the University of Florida's 150th anniversary has been relatively low key. But on Thursday night, the University Symphony Orchestra is playing it up big.
Its 8 p.m. performance at the University Auditorium reflects the program-shaping skills of its conductor, professor Raymond Chobaz.
It's got a long enough title - "A Crowning Achievement: A Symphonic Celebration of UF's Sesquicentennial." But, as the name suggests, all pieces share a celebratory function.
An instrument featured in all pieces is one not often encountered in orchestral company - the organ. Yet Mozart and others have referred to it as "the king of all instruments," and it will take a prominent role in George Handel's "Concerto for Organ and Orchestra in B-flat," Op. 7, No. 1. The featured soloist is new UF faculty organist Laura Ellis.
The remaining music continues that connection; all were written to celebrate royal occasions. In the evening's major work, that royal connection is attained with a theatrical layer - William Walton's score for the 1943 movie of Shakespeare's "Henry V." Contributing the narration will be Gregory Jones, theater professor at Santa Fe Community College.
There are shorter pieces written in celebration of royal coronations: Walton's "Crown Imperial" from 1937 for George VI, and Edward Elgar's "Coronation March" from 1911 for George V. And, wouldn't you know, there's an additional connection! The University Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1911.
This year's student orchestra is particularly well staffed. There are 66 string players alone. One of them, cellist Colleen Donovan, might be hobbling to her chair for this program; she began this semester as one of the two goalkeepers for the Gator soccer team but was sidelined after an injury.
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