Department of Music Blog

The University Times published an extensive article about faculty/staff bloggers at Pitt, including a nice chunk toward the end on the music department’s blog. You can read the story here.

The Women’s Choral Ensemble will conclude the fall semester with a performance of Music for the Holidays. Under the direction of Lorraine Milovac, the ensemble will present a wide variety of music from Lift Thine Eyes from Mendelssohn’s Elijah to P.D.Q. Bach’s (aka Peter Schickele’s) humorous Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John. The program will also include several traditional carols.

The Women’s Choral Ensemble performs at Heinz Chapel on Saturday, December 8 at 8 p.m. General admission is $10, student/senior admission is $5. Pitt Students will be admitted free with I.D. Tickets are be available at the door.

Founded in 1927, the University of Pittsburgh Women’s Choral Ensemble is open to all women of the University community, including undergraduates, graduate students, and staff. The group brings together women of all disciplines, and performs repertory ranging from traditional sacred and secular classics to international folk songs, popular music, and show tunes. Auditions are held in the fall of each year.

Listen to the Women’s Choral Ensemble singing the Sanctus from Stehpen Hatfield’s Missa Brevis. The performance was recorded at Bellefield Hall on November 4 during the Women in Song choral festival.

Roger Zahab and the University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will present an ambitious program to end their fall semester. The concert will include Mendelssohn’s well known Hebrides Overture (also known as Fingal’s Cave), Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, and the premiere of a composition by Pitt student composer Matthew Shepherd. Titled Entremet, Shepherd’s work will feature the orchestra’s wind and percussion sections. The concert takes place on Wednesday, December 5 at 8 p.m. at Bellefield Hall Auditorium (315 S. Bellefield Avenue) and is free to the public.

The University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performs not only works of the standard art music literature, but new works, especially those of Pitt’s student composers. Outstanding students appear as concerto soloists, and the personnel consists of music students, students from the University at large, faculty, staff, and members of the metropolitan community.

Listen to an excerpt from the Finale of Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 (Organ) recorded during the orchestra’s October concert at Epiphany Catholic Church.