Grand Opening Scheduled for UD’s New Heritage Center
Apr 29, 2013 | Kristi Lynch
The Grand Opening of Heritage Center – the University of Dubuque’s new fine, performing arts, worship and campus center – will take place Saturday, May 11, and will feature a pioneering joint performance by musicians from the Columbus Symphony Orchestra from Columbus, Ohio, and the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra featuring internationally renowned violinist, Gil Shaham. Marian Hoffman, Twin Cities vocal artist and University aluma, Class of 1955, will open the program with Irving Berlin’s classic, God Bless America.
The evening is the premier UD arts scholarship benefit concert. Individual concert tickets are $75 each, and available by calling the Heritage Center Farber Box Office – walk up or charge by phone 563-585-SHOW, 12:30 – 5:30 p.m. Monday – Friday or 90 minutes prior to show, pending availability. A special invitation-only fundraising dinner will precede the concert.
The evening highlights the incomparable musicianship showcased by two of the most acclaimed regional orchestras in the United States, joined by one of the foremost violinists of our time, Gil Shaham. Shaham’s flawless technique with inimitable warmth and a generosity of spirit has solidified his legacy as an American master. He is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras, having appeared in 2012-13 with the orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, New York, and San Francisco and abroad with the Orchestre de Paris and the NHK Symphony. The program includes Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony conducted by DSO Music Director William Intriligator followed by the Brahms Violin Concerto conducted by CSO resident Associate Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson.
The concert will be streaming live at:
http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/dbqadmin.portal#
About the Columbus Symphony
Founded in 1951, the Columbus Symphony is the longest-running, professional symphony in central Ohio. Through an array of innovative artistic, educational, and community outreach programming, the Columbus Symphony is reaching an expanding, more diverse audience each year. This season, the Columbus Symphony will share classical music with more than 175,000 people in central Ohio through concerts, radio broadcasts, and special programming.
Making its home in the Ohio and Southern Theatres, the Columbus Symphony offers 12 classical concert programs and 6 pops programs each year. In the summer the orchestra performs a series of outdoor pops programs, “Picnic with the Pops”, on the Bicentennial Stage in the Columbus Commons in downtown Columbus. The Columbus Symphony also serves as the orchestra for selected performances for Opera Columbus and Ballet Met.
Peter Stafford Wilson has served the Columbus Symphony since 1990 when he joined the conducting staff as Assistant Conductor. In 1993, he was promoted to Associate Conductor, and since that time, has appeared on all of the CSO’s subscription, education, and outreach series.
Wilson also leads the nationally renowned Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestras (CSYO) program, conducting the senior orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Columbus All-City Orchestra comprised of students from the Columbus City Schools. Under Wilson’s leadership, the CSYO has appeared at national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference and the League of American Orchestras. The group has also toured internationally with highly acclaimed performances in Canada, Europe, China, and Hong Kong. In 2010, the CSO honored Wilson with its Honorary Music Educator of the Year Award for his 20 years of service to the organization’s education activities.
About the Dubuque Symphony
Although its antecedents can be traced back to 1903, the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra as it is organized today was formed in 1957 under the auspices of the University of Dubuque. Dr. Parvis Mahmoud, a UD associate professor of music, served as the conductor. Their first concert was on December 11, 1957, in Peters Commons on the UD campus. That same year UD’s President Dr. Gaylord Couchman, Music Chair Dr. Doy Baker, and supporters of the Arts, Drs. Paul Laube and Clark Stevens, began working to change the name of the UD Symphonic Orchestra to the University Civic Orchestra. The new name would recognize that members of the orchestra were drawn from both the University and Dubuque community. In 1963 the board elected to change to name to the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra (DSO).
Today, under the direction of the symphony’s third Music Director and Conductor, William Intriligator, the orchestra has experienced tremendous growth and success—attracting new audiences and musicians, adding opera productions to the season, doubling the number of education concerts, and forging new partnerships in the community. The only professional orchestra in a 70 mile radius, the symphony creates exceptional live musical experiences that challenge and inspire audiences. Performances include classical, popular, opera, and educational concerts
Intriligator has led performances with many distinguished orchestras across the country, including those of Honolulu, Houston, Minnesota, Richmond, Saint Paul, Savannah, Syracuse,
Tulsa, and others. In addition to his duties with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, Intriligator is concurrently in his fifth season as Music Director and Conductor of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra in Wyoming.
Guest Artist, Gil Shaham
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time: an American master combining flawless technique with inimitable warmth and a generosity of spirit. Since 2010 Shaham has been working on a long-term exploration of the Violin Concertos of the 1930s, a project that comprises performances and recordings with some of the world’s greatest orchestras. This season, he issues the project’s first CD on his own label, Canary Classics, playing the Barber, Stravinsky, and Berg Violin Concertos with three leading orchestras under the baton of David Robertson. Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, many of them topping charts and earning prestigious awards, including several Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, and a Diapason d’Or. He Plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius.
