The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia continues its 45th season with concerts on Saturday, November 16, 8:00pm, at Old Cabell Hall on the Grounds of the University of Virginia and Sunday, November 17, 3:30pm, at Charlottesville High School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center.
Music Director Benjamin Rous conducts the orchestra in Jessie Montgomery’s Caught by the Wind and Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1. Katy Ambrose, Principal Horn of the Charlottesville Symphony and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Virginia, is the soloist in the Strauss Concerto. She is also a member of the Delaware Symphony and an active educator and chamber musician.
Michael Slon, conductor of the UVA University Singers, leads the orchestra, chorus and a quartet of vocal soloists in two choral masterworks: Felix Mendelssohn’s setting of Psalm 42 and Anton Bruckner’s Te Deum. Soprano Pamela Beasley is the featured soloist in Psalm 42; a quartet comprising Beasley, mezzo-soprano Brenda Patterson, tenor Jamison Walker and bass-baritone Ben Wager join the orchestral and choral forces for the powerful Te Deum.
Pamela Beasley is an active soloist and recitalist. She serves on the performance faculty of the University of Virginia where she teaches voice and coordinates the classical vocal faculty. Brenda Patterson is a member of the UVA voice faculty, the co-founder of Victory Hall Opera and the vocal consultant to the Composers-in-Residence of Opera Philadelphia.
Jamison Walker is an Assistant Professor of Music at James Madison University, and regularly performs in opera, oratorio, musical theater and pops productions. Ben Wager enjoys an international career on the opera stage and has performed wide-ranging roles with such companies as the Dallas Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Minnesota Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Opera Delaware.
Michael Slon is the Director of Choral Music at the University of Virginia and the Music Director of The Oratorio Society of Virginia.
The orchestra’s 2019-20 season is supported in part by a major grant from the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. Katy Ambrose’s appearance is underwritten by the Angus Macaulay Visiting Artists Fund.
For those who want to “Know the Score,” pre-concert lectures are presented 45 minutes prior to each Saturday night concert at nearby Minor Hall. Free of charge, these popular lectures by UVA McIntire Department of Music Associate Professor Richard Will offer a lively and informative behind-the-scenes look at each concert’s works. In-depth program notes are posted on the orchestra’s website, www.cvillesymphony.org two weeks prior to each Masterworks concert.
Free parking is available in the UVA Central Grounds Parking Garage, located on Emmet Street South on Saturday nights and at Charlottesville High School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center on Sunday afternoons. The Charlottesville Free Trolley stops at McCormick Road near the UVA Amphitheater, in close proximity to Old Cabell Hall. Both venues are wheelchair accessible.
Single tickets are $10-$45 for adults and $10 for students, and may be purchased at the University of Virginia Arts Box Office, (434) 924-3376, 12:00-5:00pm, Monday through Friday in the lobby of the Drama Building at 109 Culbreth Road, or online at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu.
All University of Virginia employees (faculty and staff of all UVA departments and professional schools) are entitled to a 20% discount on tickets to individual performances. This offer does not apply to subscriptions, the December Family Holiday concerts, Pops at the Paramount or previously purchased tickets.