2010 IU Summer Music Festival Includes Soprano Angela Brown & More 6/19-8/10

The 2010 Indiana University Summer Music Festival on the IU Bloomington campus will feature more than 50 free and ticketed events running from June 19 through Aug. 10.

Highlights this year include alumna soprano Angela Brown and the 8th USA International Harp Competition, and the festival also will celebrate the 200th anniversary of composers Robert Schumann and Frederic Chopin's birth. In addition, an array of world-class orchestral concerts, chamber music, piano recitals, band concerts, percussion and other special events will be offered.

Internationally renowned soprano Brown, a Jacobs School of Music alumna who catapulted to stardom following her 2004 Metropolitan Opera debut as Aida, brings her "Opera from a Sistah's Point of View" to the Musical Arts Center July 30. This solo show dispels the myths of opera through lively commentary on opera plots and characters, moving arias, poignant art songs and spirituals.

Founded in 1989 by world-renowned harpist Distinguished Professor Susann McDonald, the USA International Harp Competition is held every three years and is hosted by the IU Jacobs School of Music. This year's competition runs July 7-17, including laureate recitals by the 2004 and 2007 winners.

The Festival Orchestra will be led this year by renowned conductors Xian Zhang, Lawrence Renes and Giancarlo Guerrero. Taking place July 1 and 22, and Aug. 5, respectively, the concerts will feature a variety of works, including Sibelius's Symphony No. 2, Wagner's Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin, Strauss's Death and Transfiguration and Respighi's The Fountains of Rome. Considered one of the finest ensembles in the region, the Festival Orchestra's musicians include distinguished faculty members, guests from major symphony orchestras, and students at the Jacobs School.

Time for Three, a string trio that includes Indianapolis Orchestra Concertmaster Zach De Pue, will offer a performance with elements of classical, country western, gypsy and jazz idioms, and jazz violinist Sara Caswell returns to the festival with the Sara Caswell Jazz Quartet.

Special events in the chamber music series include a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann's birth by including most of his chamber music sprinkled throughout. A unique Menahem Pressler and Friends program (repeated) will include Jacobs School faculty violinist Alexander Kerr, violist Diemut Poppen and cellist Carter Brey. The Penderecki and Afiara quartets, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson and Weiss-Kaplan-Newman trios return, while the Rubens and Shanghai quartets make their Summer Music Festival debuts.

The Chopin bicentennial celebrations with the Shanghai Quartet, directed by pianist Edward Auer, include a symposium led by musicologist Halina Goldberg, two chamber music performances showcasing Chopin concerti in "quartett" style and seven solo piano performances.

The festival's piano recital series also includes performances by Evelyne Brancart, Read Gainsford and James Tocco. A special concert celebrating the 25th birthday of the IU Piano Academy will feature performances by all members of the core academy faculty.

Other performances to look forward to include pipe organ recitals on the newly dedicated Seward Organ in Auer Hall, marimbist Gordon Stout and the IU Percussion Academy faculty.

The Symphony Orchestra, composed of Jacobs students, will perform two concerts -- July 13 and Aug. 10 -- conducted by Cliff Colnot, principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's contemporary MusicNOW series and of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

The Summer Chamber Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Jon Gray, will perform Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and Poulenc's organ concerto with soloist Christopher Young.

The popular Summer Band concerts, featuring the conducting talents of Stephen W. Pratt and David C. Woodley from the IU Department of Bands, will be held on the lawn of the MAC. The concerts, featuring marches, popular favorites, solos and light classics, are scheduled for 7 p.m. July 7, 14 and 21.

Some events are free and some require tickets. A limited number of Festival Passes, discounted by more than 50 percent, are offered to the general public (with further reductions for any full-time students). Tickets and Festival Passes will be available from the Musical Arts Center Box Office beginning May 24.

For a complete list of Summer Music Festival performances and further information, visit http://music.indiana.edu/summer.

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