WFU music department concludes year with five spring concerts

The University Jazz Ensemble will perform April 19 at 8 p.m. Directed by Patrick Tucker, adjunct instructor of music, the program will include chamber Jazz compositions emphasizing the art of improvisation in which students will perform solo “chops” or phrases during the performance. Matt Kendrick, adjunct instructor of music, will join the ensemble on bass, and students from Kendrick’s improvisation class will be featured soloists in selections by Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

On April 24 at 8 p.m., “Music for Two Sopranos & Chamber Music by Handel” will be presented by the Carolina Baroque. This professional period instrument ensemble specializes in music for the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition to trio-sonatas and two secular Italian duets for two sopranos and continuo (harpsichord and cello), the concert will feature the first presentation of the secular cantata “Aminta & Fillide” in the United States. Carolina Baroque commissioned King’s Music in England to publish the musicparts for “Aminta & Fillide.” Previously, no performance edition was available.

The six-member group is directed by Dale Higbee, music director of the Carolina Baroque, and includes Teresa Radomski, Wake Forest professor of music, soprano; Marilyn Taylor, soprano; John Pruett, baroque violin; Gretchen Tracy, baroque cello; Susan Bates, Wake Forest adjunct instructor of music, harpsichord; and Higbee, recorders.

On April 25 at 3 p.m., three chamber groups — the Quintessential Winds, the Wake Forest University Flute Choir and the newly formed JazzStrings@wfu — will be featured at the Student Chamber Music Concert. The groups will perform a wide variety of music, including selections by Antonin Dvorak, Antonio Florio and Giuseppe Verdi.

The Wake Forest University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Wake Forest Director of Bands Kevin Bowen, will feature music written primarily for other media such as opera, orchestra and choir at their spring concert April 27 at 8 p.m. The ensemble’s repertoire will include Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” “Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral” by Wagner and “O Magnum Mysterium” by Morten Lauridsen.

Wake Forest’s final music event of the year will be a combined concert featuring the University Concert Choir, Wake Forest Chorale and University Orchestra on April 28 at 8 p.m. The three groups will present a complete performance of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.” David Hagy, Wake Forest’s orchestra director, will conduct the performance, and the concert will feature baritone Leonard Rowe and soprano Laura Ingram from the Triad area; counter-tenor Alfred Sturgis from the Triangle area; and the Winston-Salem Children’s Chorus.

For information about any of these concerts, call 336-758-5364.