HANOVER, NH—Handel’s Messiah: it’s all about Christmas, right? How many times have you heard its famous “Hallelujah Chorus” in halls decked in green and red? Handel would beg to differ. The proper season for this beloved oratorio is spring. Recounting through song the life of Jesus Christ, Messiah culminates in the Easter story, in which Christ returns to save our souls. Its 1741 debut in Dublin occurred in the month of April, and it very literally redeemed suffering people, raising money to pay the debts of 142 people in debtors’ prisons. “ The Handel Society of Dartmouth … [Read more...]
Student Ensembles
A Farewell to Handel Society Conductor Robert Duff
The Handel Society of Dartmouth College performs Handel's Messiah on May 18 and 19 as its last performances under artistic director Robert Duff before he leaves for positions in Boston. Hop Film Programming Manager Johanna Evans wrote this reflection. By Johanna Evans ’10 Handel’s Messiah is a choral masterwork about beginnings, endings and beginning again—themes which find new emotional resonance as we prepare our final concert with Bob Duff at the baton and reflect on how we’ve grown over these last 15 years together. I have been singing with Bob for most of that time, staring in … [Read more...]
Dartmouth College Gospel Choir rocks the Hop April 28
Need some sonic sunshine after the long winter? The Dartmouth College Gospel Choir and its big band and soloists are ready to deliver on Sunday, April 28, 2 pm, in the Hop's Spaulding Auditorium. Pianist/singer Walt Cunningham is the driving force behind this ensemble’s uplifting sound. Student and community vocalists from many backgrounds and beliefs offer universal messages of faith, love and inspiration. Accompanied by a full band, their energetic performances include spirituals and cutting-edge gospel hits. See Cunningham and the Gospel Choir in action in this Dartmouth-made … [Read more...]
Two tragic losses and one enduring mentorship inspire vibrant new music
On Saturday, May 4, the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble premieres a composition by Dartmouth senior Adam Rinehouse. Two Meditations: Elegy for Wind Ensemble is a substantial, 23-minute, three-movement work that also serves as the senior thesis project for Adam, who is a double major in music and computer science and percussion section leader in the wind ensemble. In this essay for the concert's program notes, Adam writes about the three people who inspired this composition. Two Meditations: Elegy for Wind Ensemble was written for my senior honors thesis in the music major. It is the … [Read more...]
Who’s on stage this spring at the Hop?
Even on the still-frigid Dartmouth campus there are signs of spring - at least in the form of mud, puddles and copious potholes. But cheerier signs will soon be arriving - along with a blooming array of events at the Hopkins Center for the Arts! Here's a quick preview of the live performance events coming this spring - and stay tuned for highlights of what's happening on Hop screens in film and HD video! Thursday, March 28 – Seth Parker Woods’s Thursday Night Live show is the first of several “Festival of New Music” events spread throughout this spring. Seth is a cellist, and he’ll play … [Read more...]
The famous “Fifth” tops an all-Beethoven program, February 23
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...]
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, along with Hop members at the "Bentley Fellow" level and above and donors who have endowment funds that support ensemble tours. Follow their trip as documented by Laura Jeliazkov '18, a flautist with the DSO. 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 … [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...]
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