The UNCG School of Music Symphony Orchestra and Combined University Choirs, conducted by Dr. Kevin M. Geraldi, performed Giuseppe Verdi’s monumental Messa da Requiem to a capacity audience at UNCG Auditorium on Friday, February 24, 2017.

The students of the orchestra and choirs were joined by a quartet of accomplished School of Music alumni soloists: Jill Bowen Gardner (MM ’95), soprano; Stephanie Foley Davis (MM ’05), mezzo-soprano; Daniel Stein (MM ’05), tenor; and David Weigel (MM ’12), bass.

Original digital artwork was also created to accompany Verdi’s masterpiece by students from the UNCG School of Art.

The performance has received positive reviews.

From Voix des Arts:

“Performing the Messa da Requiem is a tremendous undertaking even for the best-funded and ​most ​impeccably-trained orchestras, choral societies, and opera companies. Frequent traversals by Italian opera houses, recent performances by Houston Grand Opera, and the inclusion of the Messa in the Metropolitan Opera’s 2017 – 2018 Season​ are evidence of the overtly operatic demands of the score. It is a ​testament to both the ambitions and the accomplishments of the School of Music in the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s College of Visual and Performing Arts that performing the Messa da Requiem was considered within the department’s capabilities, but the true confirmation of the School of Music’s merits was the monumental, moving performance that the university’s musical personnel achieved.”

— Voix des Arts, PERFORMANCE REVIEW —

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Clarinet studio member and music education Jennifer Dewey is currently serving as the President of the UNCG chapter of the music fraternity, Mu Phi Epsilon. The UNCG chapter is an active one, with ongoing service projects, fundraisers, and social events within and outside the School of Music. Jennifer is also a member of NCMEA, NAFME, and ASTA, and has recently developed a passionate interest in string teaching, in addition to her interest to become a band director. She is an active performer at UNCG, a member of the Symphonic Band, is performing in several recitals this semester, serves regularly as a volunteer, and holds a part-time job. She is keeping very busy, and we thank her for serving our UNCG community in all of those ways!

Thanks to Mike Waddell, clarinet professor from UNC – Wilmington and the Vandoren company, for his February 3 visit and excellent class on jazz clarinet.

The College of Visual and Performing Arts at UNCG is very pleased to announce the inaugural Anna Celenza Interdisciplinary Lectures in the Arts.

Made possible through the generosity of Dr. Anna H. Celenza, who holds undergraduate degrees in both music and visual arts from UNCG, these lectures are intended to provide the opportunity for students and faculty to explore similar themes in different arts disciplines through presentations by visiting scholars.

The inaugural Celenza Lectures will be held on Tuesday, January 24 at 5:30 at the Weatherspoon Art Museum Auditorium.  Gwen Chanzit, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum, will speak about her blockbuster exhibition, The Women of Abstract Expressionism, which is on view at the Mint Museum in Charlotte until January 22.  This show highlights the work of the talented women who worked along side their more famous and successful male contemporaries.

Dr. Chanzit will be joined by Dr. Tammy Kernodle, Professor of Musicology at Miami University of Ohio, whose lecture is entitled Playing From the Margins: Gender, Jazz and Cultural Containment in Cold War Era America.  Together Drs. Chanzit and Kernodle will present different aspects of women’s contribution to the arts in the United States in the period after World War II.

To get a taste of what is to come, check out this trailer: