by Christopher Murphree
The Sewanee Symphony Orchestra and the Sewanee Praise Team will be performing their winter concert soon after the school returns from Thanksgiving Break on Thursday, December 5th. The concert will take place in Guerry Auditorium at 7:30 P.M. and is free to the public.
After successfully completing their first concert under new conductor Cesar Leal, the orchestra will present pieces concerning war, love, and rejection. Beethoven’s ‘Coriolan’ chronicles the legend of Roman general Gaius Marcius Coriolanus as he prepares for the horrors of war, despite his loving mother’s hopeful persistence of a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Next up on the program, the short piece ‘Lauretta Aria’ from Giacomo Puccini’s opera GianniSchinni provides musical melodrama as a young woman begs her father to allow her to see the love of her life. On a more uplifting note, ‘Radetzky March’ composed by Johann Strauss Jr. celebrates Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz’s victory at the bloody Battle of Custoza, the final victory for the Austrian Empire, restoring authority over the Italian provinces in 1866.
Lastly, ‘Shepherd’s Hymn’, originally written by Michael Neale and arranged for the orchestra and Sewanee Praise by Sewanee’s own Prakash Wight, will treat the audience to the sounds of “Gloria”. The orchestra and praise team features not only hardworking Sewanee students, but students from St. Andrew’s Sewanee and dedicated friends and residents of the Sewanee community. The concert is sure to be a delightful and educational experience for all ages.