Maestro Raymond Leppard performs
The opening concert of the University of Indianapolis Faculty Artist Concert Series featured artist-in-residence Raymond Leppard conducting a student orchestra on Sept. 16.
Music professor and Director of Artistic Advancement of Music Richard Ratliff talked about beginning the plans for the production, a process that began this past winter.
Maestro Raymond Leppard conducts the orchestra and concert choir during the Faculty Artist Concert Series opening gala in Ruth Lilly Performance Hall. Photo by Kameron Casey
“We talked with Mr. Leppard about what we would like to do, what he would like to do and what we thought the students might like to do if they were included,” Ratliff said.
According to Ratliff, the music was selected on the basis of what the players and choir would enjoy, along with figuring out which faculty they would like to see featured, and what the audience would find interesting. The concert choir had been learning each piece since the beginning of the semester and only worked with Leppard a few days before the program.
“They worked with Dr. Krasnovsky since the beginning of the semester, but their first time with him [Leppard] was during rehearsal. He took it slower with them, and they had to set their internal clocks,” Ratliff said.
The performance began with three pieces from German composer Johann Bach, “Allegro,” “Adagio,” and a reprise of “Allegro” from “Concerto in C Minor,” performed by an orchestra consisting of 14 student musicians.
Bach’s pieces were originally written to be performed on wind instruments such as the flute and piccolo, but were performed on string instruments. According to Ratliff, this was a first for the concert.
Accompanying the orchestra was Adjunct Music Faculty Pamela French performing as a soloist on the oboe and Assistant Professor of Music Austin Hartman on the violin.
The orchestra was then led into five selections from the Norwegian Romantic composer Edvard Grieg’s “From Holberg’s Time Op. 40.” Those pieces were “Praeludium: Allegro vivace,” “Sarabande: Andante,” “Gavotte: Allegretto,” “Air: Andante religioso” and “Rigaudon: Allegro con brio.”
Freshman nursing major Amy Hehman thought the Grieg piece was hypnotic.
“I think it’s very intense,” Hehman said. “It keeps you focused on the music. It’s enjoyable.”
The second half of the program consisted of conversations with Leppard, who was seated onstage and answered questions from Professor of Music Paul Krasnovsky. The responses from Leppard made the audience laugh.
Ratliff said that overall, he thought incorporating a conversation with Leppard went well.
“Sometimes the lapel mic doesn’t work as well, so I don’t think others up in the balcony could hear him as well, but it went as well as it could go,” he said, and laughed.
The orchestra, along with the concert choir, was then led into a finale of songs from Austrian classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart’s “Ave verum Corpus, K. 618” and “Vesoerae solennes de Confessore, K. 339 Laudate Dominum.”
To end the concert, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Music Kathleen Hacker performed Mozart’s “Magnificat,” along with soprano Hannah Holmes, mezzo-soprano Elisabeth Kleinsmith, tenor Andrew Wegg and bass-baritone Glen Hall.
