University Chamber Music series presents
Virginia Tech Department of Music University Chamber Music series presents Igor Stravinsky’s "L'histoire du soldat," or "The Soldier's Tale."
The concert will be conducted by Department of Music faculty Travis J. Cross. It will also feature guest actors Sue Ott Rowlands, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, as the narrator; and Department of Theatre Arts faculty Gregory Justice as the soldier, and Michael Anthony Williams as the devil.
Performances will be on Saturday, March 21 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 22 at 3 p.m. in the Squires Recital Salon located in the Squires Student Center adjacent to downtown Blacksburg on College Avenue.
Instrumentalists will be the Kandinsky Trio’s Benedict Goodfriend whose virtuosic violin portrays the devil, Department of Music faculty David Widder will play clarinet, John Husser will play bassoon, John Adler will play trumpet, and Jay Crone will play trombone. Also featured, will be Roanoke Symphony musicians John Smith on bass, and William Ray on percussion.
Written by Stravinsky in 1918 with French text by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, this University Chamber Music concert will be performed using the English translation by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black. The piece is based on a Russian folk tale about a soldier trading his fiddle for a book predicting the economic future. With its shifting rhythms, angular melodies, and virtuosic solo writing, the work represents a transition between the great early ballets of Stravinsky and his later neo-Classical period.
Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for seniors, and $5 for students and are available in advance through the University Unions and Student Activities Box Office in the Squires Student Center, at (540) 231-5615, or online and at the door one hour prior to performance time. Convenient free parking is located nearby in the Squires and Shultz Dining Hall parking lots.
