University of Maine students and musicians spoke to WABI (Channel 5) and WLBZ (Channel 2) about “An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein Classics,” an upcoming fundraiser for the University of Maine School of Performing Arts. Ben McNaboe, a senior music education major, will direct about 90 musicians and vocalists for the student-produced show he created. McNaboe and Olivia Bean, a violist in the show, were interviewed for WLBZ’s show “207” and spoke about their hopes of expanding the School of Performing Arts’ outreach efforts. Show soloists Justin Zang, Hope Milne and Ira Kramer spoke to WABI about the uniqueness of the show and faculty member Liz Downing said tickets are selling fast.
Archive for the ‘School of Performing Arts’ Category
UMaine Students talk to WABI, WLBZ About Rodgers and Hammerstein Concert
Wednesday, January 15th, 2014Maine Edge Reports on MLK Day Events Planned at UMaine
Wednesday, January 15th, 2014The Maine Edge reported the University of Maine and the Greater Bangor Area NAACP will celebrate the life and service of Martin Luther King Jr. with events including a march, lunch and panel discussion from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Jan. 20. The Maine Edge also reported the UMaine School of Performing Arts’ presentation of “Ein deutsches Requiem” by Johannes Brahms has been rescheduled for Jan. 20, in the 900-seat Hampden Academy Performing Arts Center in Hampden.
Maine Edge Advances UMaine Faculty Concert Featuring Russian Cellist
Wednesday, January 15th, 2014The Maine Edge reported Russian cellist Alexander Lvovich Volpov will be the guest performer at the University of Maine School of Performing Arts’ faculty concert Jan. 18 in Minsky Recital Hall. Volpov will perform with Phillip Silver, a UMaine music professor.
WVII Interviews UMaine Students About Rodgers and Hammerstein Show
Tuesday, January 14th, 2014WVII (Channel 7) advanced “An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein Classics,” a student-run fundraiser for the University of Maine School of Performing Arts. On Jan. 17, Ben McNaboe, a senior music education major at UMaine, will direct about 90 musicians and vocalists in the show he created. He said organizing the event has been a team effort. UMaine students and musicians Justin Zang, Hope Milne and Ira Kramer also spoke to WVII about their experiences being involved in the production.
BDN Interviews UMaine Student About School of Performing Arts Fundraiser
Friday, January 10th, 2014The Bangor Daily News spoke with Ben McNaboe, a senior music education major at the University of Maine, about the upcoming School of Performing Arts fundraiser show he created and organized. On Jan. 17 McNaboe will lead about 90 musicians and vocalists in a student-produced show titled “An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein Classics.” It will be the largest student-run performing arts production at UMaine in more than a decade, the BDN reports. McNaboe said he chose the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein because “the audience for their music is huge” and “all generations can relate to it.”
Oratorio Society Concert Rescheduled for MLK Jr. Day
Friday, January 10th, 2014The University of Maine School of Performing Arts’ presentation of “Ein deutsches Requiem” by Johannes Brahms has been rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20 in the 900-seat Hampden Academy Performing Arts Center in Hampden.
Retiring Professor Ludlow Hallman will conduct the Oratorio Society Concert, which is dedicated to the memory of those killed during the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Jan. 20 was chosen as the new concert date in tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. Kelly Scheetz, soprano; and Justin Zang, baritone, will be soloists.
Brahms’ Opus 45 is a prayer for the souls of the departed. “Brahms’ text addresses those who are left behind, with words of comfort and consolation,” Hallman says. “It is a very personal and heartfelt master work. He envisioned it as a work for all of humanity, transcending specific religious belief or nationality.”
Hallman has conducted the University Orchestra, an auditioned group of 45 musicians, and the Oratorio Society, a mixed choral ensemble of community members and university students. He has also directed the Opera Workshop, chaired UMaine’s Music Department and served as resident director of the New England Universities in Salzburg program — which was the immersion training for students of German. In addition, he has conducted and directed music for multiple operas and musical comedies and served as assistant conductor of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.
Admission is $10, free with a student MaineCard. For tickets or disability accommodations, call 207.581.1755. Tickets will also be available at the door prior to the performance.
Faculty Concert Features Russian Cellist
Monday, January 6th, 2014Russian cellist Alexander Lvovich Volpov will be the guest performer at the University of Maine School of Performing Arts faculty concert Saturday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Minsky Recital Hall.
Volpov, born in Sverdlovsk, Russia and educated at Sverdlovsk School for Musically Gifted Children, will join UMaine music professor Phillip Silver on stage. Volpov will play violoncello and Silver will play piano. The recital will include works by Boccherini, Davydov, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Rachmaninoff, and will feature “Sonata for Cello and Piano” by Rachmaninoff.
Volpov is principal cellist of the Northern Ballet Theatre Orchestra and has been guest principal cellist with the Scottish Opera and London Concert Orchestra, among others.
Silver has performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Wigmore Hall in London; Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in Scotland; Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Germany; Mozarteum in Salzburg; and Henry Crown Symphony Hall in Jerusalem.
Admission is $9, free with a valid student MaineCard. For tickets, or to request a disability accommodation, call 207.581.1755. Tickets also may be purchased at the door one hour prior to the show.
UMaine Senior to Direct a Benefit Production Featuring 90 Musicians and Vocalists
Friday, January 3rd, 2014Nearly 90 musicians and vocalists will take the stage Friday, Jan. 17 when the University of Maine School of Performing Arts presents the student-directed production, “An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein Classics.”
The 7:30 p.m. event in Hauck Auditorium, directed by UMaine music education senior Ben McNaboe of Yarmouth, will showcase a full symphony orchestra of nearly 50 musicians and 40 vocalists, all of whom are UMaine students, faculty and alumni.
“The program is made up of music from all of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s biggest shows,” says McNaboe. “I think a lot of people have this initial reaction of it being old or out-of-date music, but to me, and I think to a lot of people in the musical theater community, it’s timeless.”
The program will feature 22 selections from such award-winning American musicals as “The Sound of Music,” “The King and I,” “South Pacific,” “Oklahoma!,” “State Fair” and “Carousel.” The event will also feature vocal performances by the university’s premier a cappella ensembles — Maine Steiners and Renaissance. The groups will perform “There is Nothing Like a Dame” and “Do-Re-Mi,” respectively.
UMaine music faculty members flutist Liz Downing and pianist Laura Artesani will perform in the symphony orchestra. The experienced orchestra had its first rehearsal Dec. 8, while the vocalists began rehearsing in November.
UMaine business management junior Morgan Cates of Camden, Maine, will host the event.
Tickets are $22 and available from the Collins Center box office. Ticket information is available at 207.581.1755 or tickets.collinscenterforthearts.org. For more information about the performance or to request a disability accommodation, call 207.581.1781. The event’s snow date is Sunday, Jan. 19 at 2 p.m.
All proceeds will benefit the UMaine’s School of Performing Arts (SPA) to enhance funding for musical and theater tours, instrument repairs and equipment purchases.
“The initial idea to do the project wasn’t as much about raising money,” says McNaboe, who began planning the event a year ago. “It came from this place of identifying that we really don’t collaborate across mediums as much as we should. This is a chance to get a large number of SPA students together in a situation where all of us are working together, between the orchestra and the vocalists on stage, to make this project happen.”
To view the event on Facebook, visit facebook.com/events/1401074010132734.
Contact: Maria NeCastro, 207.581.3743 or Monique Hashey, 207.581.4721
Three UMaine professors wrapped up in ‘One Blue Tarp’
Thursday, January 2nd, 2014Two University of Maine theater instructors will star in a UMaine English teacher’s award-winning comedic play set to premiere at Penobscot Theatre in Bangor.
Boston-born Travis Baker teaches English courses at the university and earned a master’s in English at UMaine in 2006. He penned “One Blue Tarp” after he heard a comment on a local radio sports talk show about how the Maine Red Claws — the NBA D League team that plays in Portland, Maine — should have been named the Blue Tarps.
Tom Mikotowicz, who teaches directing, playwriting, history and performance theory at UMaine, plays native Mainer Dave Stillman. The independent Stillman likes life as it is in the small coastal town of Clara, and that includes his right to have a junk pile under a blue tarp in his dooryard.
Julie Lisnet, who teaches acting at UMaine, plays Joan, Stillman’s wife who wants him to get rid of the tarp and the junk collection he has amassed so she can have a garden and not have passersby stare at the mess.
“One Blue Tarp” was named Best Play for the state of Maine in the 2013 Clauder New England Playwright Competition. It runs from Jan. 30, 2014 to Feb. 16, 2014 at the theatre on Main Street in Bangor.
WVII Reports on UMaine Concert Held in Memory of Newtown Victims
Tuesday, December 17th, 2013WVII (Channel 7) covered a concert at the University of Maine that was held in remembrance of the victims of last year’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. About 70 students, adults and professional musicians from around the state performed during the concert. UMaine student Olivia Bean said it was a great opportunity to be a part of the concert and it “brought the community together by playing music to help heal the Newtown community and even here in Greater Bangor.”
