April 22, 2016
Arts & Entertainment
the Racquette
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Maestro Duain Wolfe Opens LoKo at Crane SUNY Potsdam News
SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music will mark the College’s bicentennial with a historic concert to open the 2016 Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Arts. Maestro Duain Wolfe will conduct the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra in a concert befitting the College’s 200th anniversary, featuring guest artists, epic works and a world premiere. The performance will be offered on Saturday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall. Crane is proud to welcome Maestro Wolfe, who is the 2016 Dorothy Albrecht Gregory Visiting Conductor, for a campus residency leading up to the concert. Two vocalists will be featured soloists in the performance, including soprano Fei Ma ‘17 and guest artist Christopher Feigum, baritone. “This concert features repertoire underscoring the special occasion: Gabriel Fauré’s beautiful ‘Requiem’ has been performed numerous times in the long history of choral/orchestral performances at Crane, and was especially beloved by Crane’s longtime dean Helen Hosmer and her friend and frequent visitor to Crane, Nadia Boulanger. Mademoiselle Boulanger,
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Maestro Duain Wolfe brings classical music to Crane’s Hosmer hall.
in fact, conducted the Crane Chorus in this work at Carnegie Hall in 1941. Composer Gary Fry’s ‘Awake, Celestial Airs!,’ commissioned for this occasion, will open the concert with a festive and memorable première,” said Crane School of Music Dean Dr. Michael Sitton. The concert will open with the world premiere of “Awake, Celestial Airs!” by acclaimed composer Gary Fry, which SUNY Potsdam commissioned in honor of the College’s bicentennial. The work is based on a poem written by American poet John Pierpont, “The Airs of Palestine,” which was written in 1816 -- the same year that the College was founded.
The Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra will also perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ triumphal “Serenade to Music,” featuring a number of featured student soloists. The program also contrasts two settings of Psalm 150, with celebrated compositions by Cesar Franck and Anton Bruckner. The central work in the program is “Requiem” by Gabriel Fauré, which holds a beloved place in the history of The Crane School of Music. The great Nadia Boulanger conducted the piece three separate times as a guest conductor for the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra, after having studied composition with Fauré himself. The late
Photo by Jay Petrequin
Crane School of Music Dean Helen Hosmer loved the work so much that it was performed at her memorial service, and the opening notes of the “Pie Jesu” movement are engraved on her tombstone. “Perhaps symbolic of looking forward to the College’s third century, the three remaining works on the program have never been performed previously by Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra,” said Dr. Jeffrey Francom, who directs the Crane Chorus. Leading up to the big concert, the LoKo Festival will host Tuxedo Tailgating in the parking lot adjacent to The Crane School of Music. Crane supporters are invited to don their concert finest
and get pumped for the performance. The reception will begin at 5 p.m., in Lot 9, immediately next to Bishop Hall and the Performing Arts Center. Tuxedo Tailgating guests are invited to bring your own food to share, or enjoy offerings from the food and beverage tent sponsored by PACES Dining Services. Beer and wine will be available for purchase. Please note that per New York State law, no outside alcoholic beverages will be permitted at this event. Also prior to the performance, Dr. Nelly Case will offer a presentation about Fauré’s “Requiem,” including an analysis of the work and its prominence in the history of The Crane School of Music. This free pre-concert lecture will be offered at 6:30 p.m. in the Ralph Wakefield Recital Hall. Seating will be reserved in Hosmer for those who attend this event. The concert is free, but tickets are required, as there is limited space. To reserve free tickets, contact the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277. All LoKo Festival events are free and open to the public. For a full schedule of all events, visit the official Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Arts webpage.