The pair of concerts marks the season finale for an exciting new initiative at the Mason Gross School of the Arts: Musica Raritana, a Baroque / early Classical orchestra consisting of students, coached by local professional musicians, and coordinated by Mason Gross faculty member Andrew Kirkman. Local expert Nancy Wilson, who coached a group of nine student string players for the performance, will be featured as first violinist. Other professionals who trained members of the student orchestra for the challenging concert were Baroque oboist Geoffrey Burgess and renowned natural horn player and Mason Gross faculty member Douglas Lundeen.
“Storm and Stress" is a rough translation of “Sturm und Drang," a term originally applied to a German literary movement and more recently applied to a dramatic phase of music that occurred in the 1760s and 1770s. Far removed from the elegant style of the period that preceded it, Sturm und Drang is characterized by minor keys, abrupt shifts and aggressive rhythms — all of which result in deeply passionate, emotionally turbulent pieces. The most famous music of this movement is a series of symphonies written by Joseph Haydn, but several other composers produced comparable works. In “Storm and Stress," Musica Raritana will perform the “Sturm und Drang" works of Haydn along with the fabulous but lesser-known compositions of such artists as Johann Baptist Vanhal, Florian Leopold Gassmann, and Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf.
Admission to the April 15 concert is free, and audience members are welcome to enjoy their own brown-bag lunches during the performance. Tickets for the April 16 performance are $20 for the general public, $15 for Rutgers alumni and employees and seniors, and $10 for students. For more information, call the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center ticket office at 732/932-7511 or visit our Web site at www.masongross.rutgers.edu.
Kirkpatrick Chapel is located at 81 Somerset Street on the Old Queen’s Campus and Nicholas Music Center is in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George Street (at Route 18), on the Douglass College campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
About Andrew Kirkman
Dr. Kirkman has a B.A. degree from Durham University and an M.Mus. and Ph.D. from Kings College, London. He has published and lectured widely on music of the 15th century. He has also directed recordings of Masses by Dufay for Hyperion Records, one of which won a Gramophone award for 1999. His book, “The Three-Voice Mass in the Later Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries: Style, Distribution and Case Studies," is published by Garland. At Rutgers he directs the Collegium Musicum.
About Douglas Lundeen
Douglas Lundeen received his DMA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of music. He has played principal horn with orchestras in Costa Rica, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, is principal horn of the Princeton Symphony, Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, and has played principal horn for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and the Riverside Symphonia. Dr. Lundeen won first prize for solo natural horn in the 1987 American Horn Competition. Since then he has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey, and has been a recitalist at workshops of the International Horn Society and the International Early Brass Society. He has played principal horn with original instrument orchestras in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Vancouver and Washington, D.C. He has recordings on the Sony, Newport Classics, Musical Heritage Society, and Centaur labels.
About the Department of Music
The Department of Music at the Mason Gross School has a faculty of 36 full-time and 36 part-time members. There are approximately 460 students enrolled in its seven degree programs: Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Music, Master of Arts, Artist Diploma, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doctor of Musical Arts. All of the music degree programs have as their common aim the development of well-educated professional musicians who have a deep historical and theoretical understanding of all aspects of music. The diversity of faculty specializations within the school provides a breadth of expertise rarely encountered in other programs.
About the Mason Gross School of the Arts
Founded in 1976, the Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and is home to the departments of dance, music, theater arts, and visual arts. Its faculty and alumni rosters include arts professionals recognized nationally and internationally. The school’s enrollment of 625 undergraduates across four departments and 250 graduate students across three departments, combined with a faculty of 140, assures students the opportunity to work closely with accomplished artists within their fields.
About Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
A comprehensive research institution with more than 50,000 students on three main campuses in New Brunswick, Newark and Camden, Rutgers comprises one of the major state university systems in the nation. Chartered in 1766 in New Brunswick as Queen’s College, Rutgers is the eighth oldest institution of higher learning in the nation and now comprises 29 degree-granting divisions, including 16 offering graduate programs of study.
Public Information
For more information about any Mason Gross event, visit our Web site at www.masongross.rutgers.edu or call the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center (PAC) at 732/932-7511. Tickets are available by calling or visiting the PAC. No tickets are required for free events. Kirkpatrick Chapel is located at 81 Somerset Street on the Old Queen’s Campus and Nicholas Music Center is in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George Street (at Route 18), on the Douglass College campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Discounts available for groups, senior citizens, subscribers, and students. Programs and times subject to change. Special assistance available for persons with disabilities. Visual and listening assistance available upon advance request.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
