Perhaps the most recognized four-note phrase in all music is the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony . That G-G-G-E flat sequence, along with the image of the composer with wild hair and blazing eyes, has come to stand not just for Beethoven but perhaps all of classical music. The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra hopes to set that baggage aside and allow its audience to hear the Symphony with new ears as it performs it on Saturday, February 23, 8 pm, at Hopkins Center for the Arts, as part of an all-Beethoven program. Along with the Fifth, the program consists of the “Emperor” piano concerto … [Read more...]
Student Ensembles
Concert band plays music responding to violence, February 17
“Let This Be Our Response,” the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble’s powerful Winter program, features works that stand up to violence and political oppression, including an elegy to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The concert takes place on Sunday, February 17, 2 pm, in Spaulding Auditorium. Front and center will be the brand new Into the Silent Land, a haunting tribute to Sandy Hook by Steve Danyew, an alumnus of the school himself. The program also responds to political strife with Musica Boema, a work that had to be smuggled out of Warsaw Pact Czechoslovakia for its Michigan … [Read more...]
The music of place at Dartmouth
The best-loved places on and about the Dartmouth campus will be enfolded in a music project to premiere next fall. As part of the college's celebration of its 250th anniversary, award-winning composer Oliver Caplan '04 has been commissioned by the Hopkins Center to write a major symphony for winds that will span four movements, each inspired by a beloved Dartmouth place. The Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble will premiere the new work in Fall 2019. The commission was supported by the Scott G. Smedinghoff GR '17 Memorial Fund. Caplan is reaching out to Dartmouth students, alumni, faculty … [Read more...]
DSO Travel Diary: Italian Tour
This past winterim as some Dartmouth students sat on couches, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra undertook a 10-day concert tour of Italy. Follow their trip as documented by Laura Jeliazkov '18, a flautist with the DSO. Hop Backstage Day One, Monday. The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra loads 45 musicians, 47 suitcases and 36 instruments onto a bus in the 6 am darkness of Hanover. Leaving is slightly delayed by the percussionist’s failure to wake up to his alarm. A four-hour bus ride to JFK, a six-hour wait at the gate, a nine-hour flight to Milan, a four-hour bus ride to Florence, and … [Read more...]
Dartmouth Youth Winds returns this winter!
Attention, middle school musicians and those who cheer them on: the Dartmouth Youth Wind Ensemble is back for another year! Registrations are now being accepted, and rehearsals begin January 19. Open to students of the Upper Valley and surrounding regions, grades 6–8, the program has offered hundreds of Upper Valley youth the chance to play exciting music in a big ensemble, mentored by Dartmouth student musicians who share their love of making music in a fun-loving atmosphere. The middle schoolers attend weekly rehearsals, where they play side-by-side with the student musicians of … [Read more...]
Dartmouth Can Really Sing
By Caileadair Holmes ‘22 On Saturday, October 27, while it might have seemed drizzly and dismal outside, the inside of the HOP echoed with rich voices and musical melodies. "Dartmouth Sings" was more than a concert. It is an event so centered in our being of music and togetherness that it is acts as a wonderful reminder of everything positive: what it means to be a community, a family, love and diversity. The combination of vocal excellence, fun and even audience participation pulls anyone listening into a feeling of good vibes and good people. With songs like Respect and Natural Woman … [Read more...]
A composer’s unique take on life and death
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) revealed his deepest feelings about life and death in his “German Requiem” (Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45). Written over about 10 years starting in his 20s—a period that encompassed the deaths of two people especially important to Brahms—the work doesn’t use the traditional Latin mass, but instead sets Brahms’s own selected text from the Lutheran bible, in German. Perhaps this personal connection to the text is one reason the Requiem is so profound and beautiful, painting a broad, detailed emotional canvas with splendid vocal and the symphonic writing. Judge for … [Read more...]
R & R & Jazz @ Thursday Night Live
Photos by Ben DeFlorio The first Thursday Night Live featured opera. The second one, on Nov. 1, was all about jazz. Taylor Ho Bynum led the students of the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble in a rousing set of new, improvisatory music. The guest artists for the evening were Bynum's Boston-based music friends The Fully Celebrated Orchestra - actually, a trio, which became a quartet when Bynum sat in. The gathering included drinks from the pop-up bar, mellow lighting, an all-ages crowd, and a DJ set following the live performance. Thursday Night Live's next installment is November 8, when it moves to … [Read more...]
Dartmouth’s Barbary Coast Improvises with Acclaimed Jazz Luminaries, Nov 2
The Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble, Dartmouth’s resident creative music big band, is joined by three acclaimed guest artists: tuba legend Joseph Daley, who’s played with Taj Mahal, Charlie Haden, Stevie Wonder and others while also leading his own celebrated projects; pianist Kris Davis, 2018 DownBeat “rising star” pianist who’s burning up international jazz circles as a bandleader and side player; and Bill Cole, former Dartmouth music faculty and renowned innovator on non-Western wind instruments. The concert takes place Friday, November 2, 8 pm, in Spaulding Auditorium of the Hopkins … [Read more...]
What gives the music of “West Side Story” its timeless appeal?
Mention the name "Leonard Bernstein," and what music comes to mind? Chances are it's the fantastic music of the stage and film musical West Side Story. Whether it's high-octane cha-cha at a dance, edgy jazz in a street fight, or heartbreaking love songs on the fire escape, Bernstein's incredible melodies and turn-on-a-dime rhythms still grab our ears and won't let go. Get a wonderful earful of that music Saturday, October 20, 8 pm with the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble's Bernstein@100 - part of a series of events at the Hop fall celebrating Bernstein in the centennial of his … [Read more...]
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