The UTC Symphony Orchestra is led by conductor Sandy Morris.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra will present a free concert, open to the public, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 16, in the UTC Fine Arts Center’s Roland Hayes Concert Hall.
The spring concert also will be available to watch via livestream.
The 60-member college/community orchestra, led by UTC Symphony Orchestra conductor Sandy Morris, includes University music majors and non-majors, UTC music faculty, area music educators and other amateur and professional musicians from the region.
“The music for this concert was requested by various members of the orchestra, and a goal was to allow as many of them to play as much as possible,” Morris said. “Much of our music this year has focused on smaller instrumentation, and I wanted our musicians to have a chance to play this entire concert.”
This performance includes “Marche Slave” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, “Variations on a Shaker Melody” by Aaron Copland, and the “Infernal Dance” and “Berceuse and Finale” from “The Firebird Suite” by Igor Stravinsky.
“Marche Slave” was written by Tchaikovsky in 1876 while Russia was supporting Serbia in the Serbian-Ottoman War. The Russian Musical Society commissioned it for a concert to aid the Red Cross Society as it helped Serbian veterans. One Russian tune that Tchaikovsky incorporated was “God Save the Tzar,” which he also used in his “1812 Overture.”
“The Firebird” was composed by Stravinsky in 1910 for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes in Paris. This collaboration began a partnership that cemented Stravinsky’s stature as an innovative, influential composer. “The Firebird” was based on Russian fairy tales and became a nationalistic Russian ballet that found much fame in France and the U.S.
“Both the ‘Marche Slave’ and ‘Firebird Suite,’ one of my favorite orchestral works, use the full orchestra,” Morris said. “The shorter Copland work is an effective respite between the two larger orchestral works with its lovely treatment of the Shaker theme—an excerpt from his ballet ‘Appalachian Spring.’”
Location: The UTC Fine Arts Center is at the intersection of Dr. Roland Carter Street (formerly known as Vine Street) and Palmetto Street.
