Roger Zahab, Director
Information on the University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for 2022/23 academic year
Symphony Orchestra and Auditions
[revised August 12, 2022]
The University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is composed of both music majors and non-music majors who have a strong devotion to music. Our level of performance improves substantially every year and all skilled musicians from throughout the University (students, faculty and staff) are welcome as well as people from the general community.
The orchestra is offered as a 1 credit course called University Orchestra - Music 0620. A successful audition is required for the permission code to register for the course, as it is to join the orchestra without registration for the course.
In Fall 2021 we returned to our scheduled time for rehearsals (and concerts) in Bellefield Hall Auditorium on Wednesdays from 7:30 pm until around 9:50 pm. Additional sectionals or individual coaching sessions can be held virtually through Zoom or FaceTime as needed. In our concerts we play a wide range of music from the Baroque period to the very latest music and support the activities of other areas in the Pitt Music Department, especially new music composition/performance and (increasingly) interdisciplinary studies.
A new feature for students registered for credit:
Chamber music studies will run concurrently with our rehearsal schedule. Each registered student will be directed to form a group with friends for chamber music practice in sight-reading, coaching and, if the group so desires, eventually, a performance.
All music department activities are open to Pitt students whether they are music majors or not. Please check out our department.
Auditions are typically done virtually by means of an unedited video recording:
Please prepare two examples of solo music for your instrument. They don't have to be complete pieces but it is certainly OK if they are, and could also be from the same extended movement or larger work. They should demonstrate contrasting styles of music performance: slow/lyrical and fast/articulate, and should use most of the available range of the instrument, and demonstrate your intonation and rhythmic skills in styles from mid-19th century (Bruch, Brahms, Saint-Saens) to recent music by living composers. (Baroque and Classical rep doesn’t really reveal enough technique for our usual orchestral repertoire, so please choose from about 1850 to 2020).
Additionally, I would like to hear a few orchestral excerpts for your instrument which I can suggest or send to you selected from major works by Beethoven through Copland, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky.
- please contact me at rzahab@pitt.edu if you have any more questions on what to prepare.
Email is best.
Our plans for 2022-23 Academic Year
Concert dates:
October 12, 2022
Gilda Lyons – La Novia de Tola (2013)
Saint-Saens - Third Concerto for Violin - Matthew Alford , soloist
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony no. 40 in g minor, K 550
December 7, 2022
Ludwig Goranson – Star Wars: The Mandalorian (3 min.)
Myroslav Skoryk – Melody (with violinist Julia Kebuladze )
Devon Tipp (Jan Rösner’s For Shakuhachi and String Orchestra)
Robert Schumann - Symphony no. 3 “Rhenish”
February 22, 2023
Ludwig van Beethoven: Creature of Prometheus Overture, op. 43 (1800-01)
April 19, 2023
John Williams - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Soundtrack Suite (Episode VII) (6 min.)
Jean Sibelius - Symphony no. 2 in D major, op. 43
All performances in Bellefield Hall Auditorium, soundcheck at 7:30pm, Concert at 8 pm
Repertoire
Beethoven: Creature of Prometheus Overture, op. 43 (1800-01)
Film scores by:
Ludwig Goranson – Star Wars: The Mandalorian (3 min.)
Myroslav Skoryk – Melody (with violinist Julia Kebuladze )
John Williams - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Soundtrack Suite (Episode VII) (6 min.)
New/recent work by:
Mark Micchelli
Gilda Lyons – La Novia de Tola (2013) 2(picc)2(EH)2(Eflat)2 222 timp perc pno strings
Elizabeth Brown – Arboretum (2013) a dark symphony for theremin and antiphonal strings
Concertos performed by:
Devon Tipp (Jan Rösner’s For Shakuhachi and String Orchestra) and
Matthew Alford (Saint-Saens Third Concerto for Violin)
Symphonies by:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony no. 40 in g minor, K 550 (second version with clarinets)
Robert Schumann - Symphony no. 3 “Rhenish” and
Jean Sibelius - Symphony no. 2 in D major, op. 43
Links to the orchestra’s recent video performances
April 20, 2022
State Anthem of Ukraine – “Ukraine has not yet perished”
Mykhailo Verbytsky, Arr. Marek Toporovsky
Circular Dancing (1995/2000, 2022 version)
Roger Zahab
Concerto in b minor for solo cello and orchestra, op. 104 (1895)
Antonin Dvořák – Alicia Loui, solo cello
Black On White (2005)
Alastair Stout, Roger Zahab, conductor
Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture (1869/70)
Pyotr Ilitch Tchaikovsky, Cullyn D. Murphy, conductor
February 23, 2022
Sibelius: Finlandia
First performance of Julia Perry’s Concerto for violin and orchestra, Cullyn D. Murphy conducting
Max Bruch: Romance, op. 85 for sola viola and orchestra, Elyssa Allen, soloist
Franz Schubert: “Unfinished” Symphony no. 8 (or 7), Roger Zahab, conducting
From Spring 2021
Alberto Nepomuceno: Batuque (from Brazilian Suite)
Judith Weir: Sinfonia Comatica
Edvard Grieg: Praeludium (from Holberg Suite)
John Cage: Living Room Music
John Cage: Amores (III)
a m | roger zahab – each solo was individually crafted for the player and placed in strange harmonic contexts to convey the idea of a city teaming with a great diversity of people coming to life.
From Fall 2020
Julia Perry: Prelude for strings
Perry wrote this for piano in 1946 and revised it in 1962. In the 1980s I found a copy of her manuscript in the American Music Center. Under the title she had written “[arrangement for string orchestra available]” but I have never been able to locate it. I made this arrangement for the University of Pittsburgh Orchestra in August 2020 in her honor.
Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377): Veni, creator spiritus
Machaut originally wrote this isorhythmic motet for four voices perhaps around 1359. I revised my earlier arrangement this work for the University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in August 2020.
G. F. Handel – Hornpipes in F and in D, from the Water Music
Previous adventures
Dvorak: New World 1st movement
Satie: Trois gnossiennes
Mozart: Jupiter Symphony, 1st movement
Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C major for strings 1 mvt
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring (arr. Kennedy)
The University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Instigator – Roger Zahab
For concert information, call 412-624-4125, or visit our Events Calendar.