OXFORD, Miss. – The Lafayette-Oxford-University Symphony
Orchestra performs a concert Wednesday (March 5) at the
Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts at the
University of Mississippi.
Tickets for the 8 p.m. program are $10 for general
admission and $6 for UM students with proper ID. Tickets
are available by visiting the UM Box Office in the Student
Union or by calling 662-915-7411.
The orchestra is slated to perform music by Beethoven,
Richard Strauss and Emmanuel Chabrier. Featured musicians
are UM faculty soloists Michael Rowlett on clarinet and
Wade Irvin on bassoon, said orchestra director Ronald
Vernon, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and
professor of music.
The program opens with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No.
1 in C major.
“Although it pays homage to Beethoven’s predecessors,
especially Haydn, it also shows the young Beethoven as a
unique creative force, especially in his use of dramatic
surprises and the prominence he gives to the members of the
wind section,” Vernon said.
After intermission, Rowlett and Irvin join the strings of
the orchestra for “The Duet-Concertino,” one of Richard
Strauss’ last works. The program concludes with “Espana,” a
work in Spanish style by the French composer Emmanuel
Chabrier.
Irvin, professor of music, has performed extensively in the
region, including feature performances with the Tupelo
Symphony Orchestra, where he is principal bassoonist, and
UM’s Wind Ensemble, which has aired on Public Radio in
Mississippi. He has been a regular member of the Memphis,
Mississippi, Meridian, and Tuscaloosa (Ala.) symphony
orchestras.
Rowlett was a semi-finalist in the International Clarinet
Association’s 1998 Young Artist Competition, and he has
appeared as a concerto soloist with the University of North
Carolina and Durham, N.C., symphony orchestras. He has
performed with the Memphis, Arkansas, North Carolina, and
Tallahassee symphony orchestras and as a chamber musician
with the Carolina Wind Quintet, Mallarme Chamber Players
and the Quodlibet Wind Quintet.
For more information on the Department of Music, visit
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/music/.
For assistance related to a disability, call 662-915-7411.