East Stroudsburg University’s Concert Choir and Symphonic Band will present their fall concerts this weekend in the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall in the University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg. Both concerts are open to the public at no cost.
On Friday, November 17 the Concert Choir will perform at 7:30 p.m. The concert looks at seasonal songs, beginning with the ever-popular “Seasons of Love” from Rent. Other works include popular hits such as “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles, “In Summer” and “Let it Go” from Frozen, and “The Song of Purple Summer” from Spring Awakening, settings of poetry by Robert Frost and Rachel Field, and a parody on Bach – “Cold and Fugue Season.”
On Sunday, November 19 the Symphonic Band will present “Complimentary Contrasts” at 3:30 p.m. The concert will present pairings of selections which both complement and contrast aspects of their musical design, beginning with the classic John Philip Sousa march, “Fairest of the Fair.” This is paired with the third movement of Ira Hearshen’s “Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa,” a scherzo based on the “Fairest of the Fair” march. The ensemble will also perform a pair contrasting darkness and light with a transcription of Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Prelude in Eb Minor” and Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque”; and look at art music and folk music with a pairing of the constructed work “Prelude, Siciliano, and Rondo” by Malcolm Arnold and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ famous “Folk Song Suite,” comprised of numerous folk songs from the English tradition. The performance will conclude with complementary contrasts in one singular work, a mix of songs and dances from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story”.
Both concerts are sponsored by the ESU Department of Theatre. For more information, please email esuarts@esu.edu or call the Fine Arts and Performing Arts events line at (570) 422-3483.