The Hillsdale College Symphony Orchestra will perform its final concert of the year at 8 p.m. on May 12 and 13 in Markel Auditorium.
The first performance will be open with ticket reservations to the general public, while the second will be open to guests of graduation, donors, and families of orchestra members by invitation only.
According to conductor and Music Department Chair James Holleman, the concert’s centerpiece will be Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.
“I was aiming everything we did this year at a difficult piece, which is the Symphonic Dances,” Holleman said. “It’s Rachmaninoff’s last orchestral work, it’s in three movements, it’s a fantastic piece of music and it’s difficult. So we’ve really been working our way up to this.”
The concert will also feature student soloists junior violinist Stevan Lukich and senior vocalist Faith Liu, this year’s winners of the music department’s annual Concerto/Aria Competition. Lukich will perform the first movement of Prokofiev’s second violin concerto, while Liu will perform “Una Voce Poco Fa” from Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” and “The Jewel Song.”
“Both of the arias I’m doing are probably familiar to audiences as ‘diva arias,’” Liu said. “‘Una Voce Poco Fa’ is the aria that is sung repeatedly in ‘Citizen Kane’ by Kane’s would-be opera star wife — hopefully I sing it a bit better than her! And ‘The Jewel Song’ was featured in the ‘Tintin’ movie. Hopefully I won’t be breaking any glass.”
Lukich and Liu began rehearsing their pieces with the orchestra over the past few weeks.
“Singing as a solo voice in front of an entire orchestra can certainly be daunting,” Liu said. “It’s just your cords against the instruments of 50 other people. But Professor Holleman and the orchestra have been excellent about supporting me and following my tempo.”
Holleman said the solos are an indispensable part of the concert.
“I find that the audience typically is very excited about the student soloists,” he said. “Students are very excited about their peers, and the board of trustees, the president’s club, all those people really like to see these students mature. So it’s a really positive thing.”
