College of Visual and Performing Arts

Spartan Voices
2024-10-06 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Tew Recital Hall, 100 McIver St, Greensboro, 27412, United States
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The UNCG Choral program is recognized for excellence, creative performances, and high artistic standards. The UNCG Choirs are comprised of four ensembles: University Chamber Singers, University Chorale, Coro di Belle Voci, and Spartan Voices. These diverse offerings allow students the opportunity to experience a wide range of stylistic ideas through the exploration of music from various time periods and various cultures, including major choral-orchestral works as well as smaller chamber pieces. The UNCG Choirs have performed at state, regional, national and international conferences. Dr. Carole Ott serves as Director of Choral Activities and conductor of Chamber Singers and Chorale. Prof. Lindsay Kesselman is conductor of Coro di Belle Voci. Dr. Brett Nolker is conductor of Spartan Voices.

The mission of the UNCG Choirs is dedicated to the teaching, performance, study and cultivation of choral music of the highest quality representing not just the western choral canon but also choral music of other cultures by a diverse body of historical and new composers. We believe that the UNCG Choirs are a serious and distinctive medium of musical expression, of vital service and importance to its members and to UNCG. Through ensemble performance, we strive to create an environment of trust, communication, and expressive freedom, to present outstanding performances throughout the year, and to enhance the institutional sprit and character of UNCG. To music as an art and a profession, the UNCG Choirs seek to bring increasing artistry, understanding, and respect by efforts within our own immediate sphere and by providing leadership and sponsorship to school choral programs and through cooperation with all other agencies pursuing similar musical goals.

Chamber Singers
2024-10-07 19:30 - 21:00 | UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro, NC, 27412, United States
Program

Carole Ott Coelho, conductorLindsay Kesselman, sopranoJaninah Burnett, soprano

TRÁN Tupelo Poems

BRAHMS Vier Quartette, op. 92

JANËEVSKIS Atsalums

LEONARDA Dixit DominusAd Arma

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About the Artists

Lindsay Kesselman is a two-time GRAMMY-nominated soprano known for her warm, collaborative spirit and investment in personal, intimate communication with audiences. She regularly collaborates with orchestras, wind symphonies, chamber ensembles, opera/theater companies, and new music ensembles across the United States, often premiering, touring, and recording new works composed for her by living composers. She is a passionate advocate for contemporary music and has commissioned/premiered over one hundred works to date.

Recent and upcoming highlights include the premiere of Darkening, then Brightening by Christopher Cerrone with the University of Illinois Wind Symphony; the wind transcription of Caroline Shaw’s Is a Rose, Energy in All Directions by Kenneth Frazelle with Sandbox Percussion at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center; the role of Anna in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins with the Charlotte Symphony; the role of Ada Lovelace in the new opera Galaxies in Her Eyes by Mark Lanz Weiser and Amy S. Punt; Astronautica: Voices of Women in Space with Voices of Ascension; the John Corigliano 80th birthday celebration at National Sawdust (2018); a leading role in Louis Andriessen’s opera Theatre of the World with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Dutch National Opera; and an international tour of Einstein on the Beach with the Philip Glass Ensemble (2012–2015).

Kesselman is Assistant Professor of Voice and Choral Music at the UNC Greensboro School of Music. Kesselman holds degrees in voice performance and music education from Rice University and Michigan State University. She is represented by Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music and lives in Charlotte with her husband, Kevin Noe, and son, Rowan.

A versatile singer, actor, musician, writer, arranger, and educator, Janinah Burnett is in demand and has thrilled audiences domestically and internationally in opera, recital, musical theatre, jazz, television, and film. Some of her signature operatic roles include Mimí in La bohème, Leila in Les pêcheurs des perles, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Micaëla in Carmen, Marguerite in Faust, and Violetta in La Traviata. An original cast member of Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème on Broadway as Mimí, she won a Los Angeles Theater Alliance Award and performed on the Tony Awards Presentation.

Burnett was on the roster of principal artists at the Metropolitan Opera for eight consecutive seasons debuting as Bianca in La Rondine. She was a member of the closing cast of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, making appearances as “Carlotta Giudicelli” since 2016.

In February 2021, Burnett released her debut album, Love the Color of Your Butterfly, which features musical arrangements and collaborations with some of the world’s finest jazz musicians including Christian Sands, Sullivan Fortner Jr., Casey Benjamin, and Terreon Gully who produced the project. Released on her own record label Clazz Records, Love the Color of Your Butterfly is an amalgamation of jazz, opera, art song, oratorio, rhythm and blues, and spirituals and introduces her concept of “Clazz,” which encourages collaboration and redefines the parameters of genre while embracing parts of history that are erased, widely unknown and forgotten. Love the Color of Your Butterfly has been featured in numerous publications including the Financial Times, Playbill, Broadway World, Downbeat Magazine, and Opera News.

Burnett has been a guest artist and taught masterclasses at Eastern Mennonite University, The Cinema School, Clark University, and Bar Harbor Music Festival. She holds an MM from the Eastman School of Music and a BA from Spelman College.

UNCG Choirs
The UNCG Choral program is recognized for excellence, creative performances, and high artistic standards. The UNCG Choirs are comprised of four ensembles: University Chamber Singers, University Chorale, Coro di Belle Voci, and Spartan Voices. These diverse offerings allow students the opportunity to experience a wide range of stylistic ideas through the exploration of music from various time periods and various cultures, including major choral-orchestral works as well as smaller chamber pieces. The UNCG Choirs have performed at state, regional, national and international conferences. Dr. Carole Ott serves as Director of Choral Activities and conductor of Chamber Singers and Chorale. Prof. Lindsay Kesselman is conductor of Coro di Belle Voci. Dr. Brett Nolker is conductor of Spartan Voices.

The mission of the UNCG Choirs is dedicated to the teaching, performance, study and cultivation of choral music of the highest quality representing not just the western choral canon but also choral music of other cultures by a diverse body of historical and new composers. We believe that the UNCG Choirs are a serious and distinctive medium of musical expression, of vital service and importance to its members and to UNCG. Through ensemble performance, we strive to create an environment of trust, communication, and expressive freedom, to present outstanding performances throughout the year, and to enhance the institutional sprit and character of UNCG. To music as an art and a profession, the UNCG Choirs seek to bring increasing artistry, understanding, and respect by efforts within our own immediate sphere and by providing leadership and sponsorship to school choral programs and through cooperation with all other agencies pursuing similar musical goals.

UNCG Choirs

Jasmine Pigott, tuba
2024-10-07 19:30 - 21:00 | Tew Recital Hall, 100 McIver St, Greensboro, 27412, United States
https://youtube.com/live/9js7bJjocyY?feature=share

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Not your traditional origin story, Dr. Jasmine “Jazzie” Pigott genuinely wanted to play the tuba from a young age because of a show called Veggie Tales. Only, in the fourth grade, she made the mistake of confusing it with the trombone and choosing that instead. Not impressed, she dealt with that for a year before jumping on the opportunity to bug her band director until he finally handed her an authentic tuba. This was true love at first sight, becoming her strongest life-long commitment at only the age of 10.

With finding nothing more promising than a career as a musician, Dr. Jazzie decided to follow that as her career path. Torn between majoring in voice or tuba, she made the tough decision to put voice to the side to follow her true calling as a professional tuba player and educator. However, since then, she has found a way to showcase her voice with the tuba. She attended Ithaca College for music education, until realizing after her sophomore elective recital that she enjoyed solo performance so much that she added a performance degree. During that year, she also began to once again participate in choirs, becoming one of the student leaders of the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers under the direction of Dr. Baruch Whitehead. Through these various avenues of performance, Dr. Jazzie learned how to find and use her voice in more than music.

Following the 2016 election, Dr. Jazzie formed the IC Musicians of Color, her first exploration into making spaces for musicians of color and allies in predominantly white environments. At this time, however, the tensions of the world seeped into her personal life. Her best friend and roommate ended up a secret neo-nazi, who left the school suddenly and harassed her for months on end, calling her the N-word and threatening to join the KKK. While heart breaking, this experience empowered her to dive headfirst into using her career as a platform for social change–to do what she could to prevent the same situations from happening to other people of color by sharing her story and promoting the value of representation in the field.

In 2018, Dr. Jazzie’s first tour as a soloist to Costa Rica, along with vocalist Fred Peterbark and pianist Oliver Scott, allowed her to witness the power of representation firsthand as a performer. Performing spirituals for a predominately Black audience in Limon and witnessing the joy as they sang along and applauded changed her forever. Since, she has completed several research and performance projects with the goal of increasing representation of Black musicians, music styles, and composers.

Symphonic Band
2024-10-08 19:30 - 21:00 | UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro, NC, 27412, United States
Program

Jonathan Caldwell, conductorPatty Saunders, graduate conductor

BERNSTEIN Slava!

ZARE Deep Underground

PRICE The Old Boatman and Adoration

NELHÝBEL Trittico

THOMAS Magneticfireflies

MÁRQUEZ Conga del fuego nuevo

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The importance of philanthropy has never been greater. Please consider a gift to the School of Music to support our mission and ensure the future of music at UNCG.

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The renowned UNCG Bands are dedicated to the performance, study, and cultivation of wind band music of the highest quality, and are a serious and distinctive medium of musical expression. The UNCG Bands are considered to be among the very finest collegiate band programs in America based upon our active profile of excellence in our performances, recordings, tours and convention performances.

Through exemplary practices in organization, training, and presentation, the UNCG Bands provide exceptional experiences for our members, sharing outstanding performances throughout the year and enhancing the institutional spirit and character of UNCG.

The UNCG Bands seek to support music education in the state of North Carolina and in our region by providing leadership and sponsorship to secondary school band programs and other organizations.

Symphony Orchestra
2024-10-09 19:30 - 21:00 | UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro, NC, 27412, United States
Program

Jungho Kim, conductorFranck Fontcouberte, guest conductorAngela Moretti, bassoonDaisy Schön, soprano

WEBER Concerto for Bassoon in F Major, op. 75

BIZET Suite No. 1 from Carmen

BOULANGER D’un Matins de printemps

GOUNOD Musique de ballet de Faust“Je veux vivre” from Roméo et Juliette

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The importance of philanthropy has never been greater. Please consider a gift to the School of Music to support our mission and ensure the future of music at UNCG.

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About the Artists

Angela Moretti is currently in her first year of study for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Central Florida and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Florida State University. Prior to her time at UNCG, Ms. Moretti was the Adjunct Lecturer of Bassoon at Texas Lutheran University and served in the U.S. Army as a member of the 8th Army Band in South Korea and the 323d Army Band in Texas. While serving as an Army musician, she performed in hundreds of concerts, festivals, and clinics in South Korea and the United States. Prior to her Army service, Angela was a music teacher at Lakewood Park Elementary School in Florida and held positions with several regional orchestras across Florida and Texas. Her small business, Laughing Crow Bassoon Reeds, specializes in handmade bassoon reeds and supplies for amateur and professional bassoonists. In her spare time, Angela enjoys hiking, nature photography, freelance graphic design, and spending time with her rescued greyhound, Sarge.

Ms. Daisy Schön, she/her, is a classical soprano pursuing her Masters at UNCG. She studies with Dr. Robert Wells and is in the Vocal Pedagogy track. Daisy graduated from Indiana University with a BM degree in Vocal Performance where she studied with Dr. Brian Gill. While at IU, Daisy sang in numerous opera choruses, oratorios, and premiered contemporary vocal solo works. Last summer, Ms. Schön sang at the Collaborative Piano Institute at Louisiana State University, where she sang in masterclasses with master teachers of collaborative piano and premiered a set of music written for her and Mengyao Zhao by Steven Naylor. Daisy also teaches a vibrant studio and maintains an interest and focus on trauma-informed teaching practices. She strives for a compassionate, joyful, and mindful approach to her musicianship and facilitating.

Franck Fontcouberte is the artistic director of the Contrepoint instrumental ensemble, the «MusicaSète» festival, the «Rencontres Gigeantesques», the Ensemble Vocal et Instrumental de Montpellier and the Chorale de Sète, Conductor of the United Strings of Europe in London.

After working as conductor with David Robertson, Zoltan Pesko, Armin Jordan and Pierre Boulez, he gives numerous concerts in France and abroad with his own orchestras and as guest conductor in Florence, Rome, Riga, Athens, Istanbul, Barcelona, Prague, Salzburg, Johannesburg, Belgrade, Kotor, Novisad, London, Geneva, Lausanne, Beirut and Merida.

Alongside his career as Music Director and Conductor, Franck Fontcouberte is a professor of instrumental ensembles at the Regional Conservatory of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole. He founded the International Academy of Conducting, which provides opportunities for young conductors from around the world to develop under his guidance. He was invited by the Université Notre Dame de Beyrouth to give master classes between 2016 and 2020.

Franck Fontcouberte has recorded many instrumental and lyrical works, including: La Belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach, the Coronation Mass by Franz Liszt, the Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi, Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, Valses et Polkas by Johann Strauss, Sacred and Profane Dances by Claude Debussy, Music for strings, percussion and celesta by Béla Bartók, Serenade for strings by Tchaikosvki, by Dvorak, by Elgar, the Chamber Symphony by Shostakovitch, the Concert for violin and percussion on Balkan themes in world premiere by Mateja Marinkovic. His latest album «In motion» under the Swedish label Bis was released in November 2020. It presents the work «Maralinga» by the Australian composer Matthew Hindson with the New Zealand virtuoso violinist Amalia Hall.

UNCG Orchestras
The vibrant UNCG Orchestra program has long been recognized for performance excellence, adventurous programming, and high artistic standards. A diversity of offerings allow students the opportunity to perform repertoire for ensembles ranging from the largest cornerstone and contemporary works for full orchestra, to intimate pieces for chamber orchestra, to string orchestra.

Students in the UNCG Orchestra program are dedicated to the performance, study and cultivation of orchestral music of the highest quality. The UNCG Orchestras offer outstanding performances throughout the year and enhance the institutional spirit and community of UNCG. We seek to promote music education in the state of North Carolina and in our region by supporting secondary school orchestra programs and other organizations through our outreach activities and other annual events on campus.

Wind Ensemble
2024-10-10 19:30 - 21:00 | UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro, NC, 27412, United States
Program

Jonathan Caldwell, conductorJaninah Burnett, vocalistErik Santos, composer

FLAGELLO Bravado

PURRINGTON apricity

SANTOS The Seer

BERNSTEIN Profanation from Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah”

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The importance of philanthropy has never been greater. Please consider a gift to the School of Music to support our mission and ensure the future of music at UNCG.

https://youtube.com/live/_w5Ibf6DKvY?feature=share

About the Artists

A versatile singer, actor, musician, writer, arranger, and educator, Janinah Burnett is in demand and has thrilled audiences domestically and internationally in opera, recital, musical theatre, jazz, television, and film. Some of her signature operatic roles include Mimí in La bohème, Leila in Les pêcheurs des perles, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Micaëla in Carmen, Marguerite in Faust, and Violetta in La Traviata. An original cast member of Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème on Broadway as Mimí, she won a Los Angeles Theater Alliance Award and performed on the Tony Awards Presentation.

Burnett was on the roster of principal artists at the Metropolitan Opera for eight consecutive seasons debuting as Bianca in La Rondine. She was a member of the closing cast of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, making appearances as “Carlotta Giudicelli” since 2016.

In February 2021, Burnett released her debut album, Love the Color of Your Butterfly, which features musical arrangements and collaborations with some of the world’s finest jazz musicians including Christian Sands, Sullivan Fortner Jr., Casey Benjamin, and Terreon Gully who produced the project. Released on her own record label Clazz Records, Love the Color of Your Butterfly is an amalgamation of jazz, opera, art song, oratorio, rhythm and blues, and spirituals and introduces her concept of “Clazz,” which encourages collaboration and redefines the parameters of genre while embracing parts of history that are erased, widely unknown and forgotten. Love the Color of Your Butterfly has been featured in numerous publications including the Financial Times, Playbill, Broadway World, Downbeat Magazine, and Opera News.

Burnett has been a guest artist and taught masterclasses at Eastern Mennonite University, The Cinema School, Clark University, and Bar Harbor Music Festival. She holds an MM from the Eastman School of Music and a BA from Spelman College.

Erik Santos is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer, and teacher, who is active in many musical genres, from rock and jazz, to classical, to electronic, world music, and music for theater and dance. He is the Chair of the Composition Department at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

As the first-born in a family of musicians – father Rosendo Ejercito Santos, Jr., mother Harriet, brothers Nathan and Jason – music has always been at the core of his life practice, both as a profession and hobby.

Professor Santos has received commissions, prizes, fellowships, and other recognitions for his concert music, including the prestigious 2020 Sousa-ABA-Ostwald Prize from the American Bandmasters Association, the Charles Ives Scholarship, and the Charles Ives Fellowship from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, awards from Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), the MacDowell Colony, the Bozeman Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Rackham Graduate School of U-M, and the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA).

But, in recent years, Santos has become increasingly preoccupied with presenting music in venues other than the classical concert hall — dance clubs, street corners, radio, theaters, churches, museums, cafes, car stereos, movies, Internet, iPods, etc. — where there is more emphasis given to the interaction of music with other spontaneous sensory elements, involving listeners at the hub of a transdimensional experience. This interest flourished in 2002 when he was invited to join the pioneering and internationally celebrated Japanese butoh company Dairakudakan: Temputenshiki (avant-garde dance/theater), as a resident composer—a potent collaboration that continues to this day.

In 2005, Santos and artist/singer Toko Shiiki formed an upbeat band called October Babies, which has performed a large variety of original multi-cultural and multi-lingual dance songs in America and Japan. (Check out their 2020 EP Find New Way, and new videos!) They affiliated with the local Ann Arbor music label/collective Oddfellow Music, which later became Willis Sound. Having completed 5 albums, along with music videos and documentaries with October Babies, Santos and Shiiki became interested in filmmaking, and this led to the full-length movie Threshold: Whispers of Fukushima in 2015. This project focuses on the lives of several musicians who have chosen to live in their homeland of Fukushima, Japan, despite the devastation of earthquake and tsunami, the threat of the failing nuclear reactor, and even persecution by fellow human beings. By 2019, they completed three more films inspired by creative relationships they formed in Fukushima (Over the Sky, Passing the Baton, and Up the Mountain), as well as the film We Women Weave, about the Moonseed Movement Troupe.

The creative relationships formed in the making of Threshold have continued to grow. For example, in 2016, Santos and Shiiki co-organized a partnership with the University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies, the Center for Japanese Studies, and SMTD, to invite the fiery Japanese youth drum ensemble Yamakiya Taiko to perform at the University of Michigan for The Fukushima Tribute Concert/Residency. This week-long event began with a thunderous concert at the Power Center and continued with a bunch of rousing Taiko workshops around campus and town. The ensemble premiered a new work Santos wrote for them and a cadre of U-M student drummers, called “Armadillo Flow.” Check out the video!

Santos has been on the Michigan local original music scene for XX years, with bands October Babies, The Crossed Lines, 16 More Miles, and Citygoat, and he’s hosted several long-running Open Mic stages in the area. These days, he’s possessed by a fresh passion for practicing – learning, unlearning, all day every day – memorizing poetry, investigating inventions of Bach and Bruce Lee, and Vince Gilligan, enjoying sound.

Wind Ensemble
The UNCG Wind Ensemble is a highly select concert band of fifty performers majoring in music at the UNCG School of Music. Performers in the current Wind Ensemble are drawn from sixteen states, Slovenia, and Hong Kong. The ensemble has enjoyed a distinguished record of performance throughout its history. In January 1992, the UNCG Wind Ensemble performed “A Tribute to John Philip Sousa” to a capacity crowd of 2,700 at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Twice, the Wind Ensemble earned critical acclaim from The Washington Post following concerts in the nation’s capital. The Wind Ensemble has performed throughout the eastern United States in recent years including the first-ever performance, in 1987, by a North Carolina collegiate ensemble in Lincoln Center, New York City. The Wind Ensemble performed that same year in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. The Wind Ensemble has recorded nineteen commercially-available albums which have received widespread praise.

Concert Band
2024-10-11 19:30 - 21:00 | UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro, NC, 27412, United States
Program

Patty Saunders, conductor

GALANTEThe Redwoods

MACKEYSheltering Sky

BALMAGESBeyond the Summit

JOLLEYAsh

GIROUXCelestial Seas

SHELDONOcean Ridge Rhapsody

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https://youtube.com/live/M3kHqTeA2WE?feature=share

The renowned UNCG Bands are dedicated to the performance, study, and cultivation of wind band music of the highest quality, and are a serious and distinctive medium of musical expression. The UNCG Bands are considered to be among the very finest collegiate band programs in America based upon our active profile of excellence in our performances, recordings, tours and convention performances.

Through exemplary practices in organization, training, and presentation, the UNCG Bands provide exceptional experiences for our members, sharing outstanding performances throughout the year and enhancing the institutional spirit and character of UNCG.

The UNCG Bands seek to support music education in the state of North Carolina and in our region by providing leadership and sponsorship to secondary school band programs and other organizations.
