 Akira Mori conducts the symphony. |
Winners of the Drake University Concerto Competition will be featured in the Drake Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Monday, March 8.
The performance, which is free and open to the public, will start at 7:30 p.m. on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main, 2507 University Ave.
Conducted by Akira Mori, the orchestra will perform George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with Ian Wong, piano, as well as arias from Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” performed by soprano Leah McIntire. The program also includes Felix Mendelsshon’s Symphony No. 4 “Italian.”
Wong, a junior majoring in music business, is from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he began playing the piano at the age of 7 and completed the Licentiate of Royal Schools of Music at the age of 16. He studies with Nicholas Roth, Drake associate professor of piano.
McIntire, a junior from Lamoni, Iowa, is majoring in voice and cello performance. She is a four-time winner of state and regional National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions. In 2008, she won the national Music Teachers National Association Senior Voice Competition. She is a student of Leanne Freeman-Miller, Drake associate professor of voice.
The Drake Concerto Competition is open to full-time music majors. Winners perform a complete concerto or comparable work with the Drake Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra, which presents a regular series of concerts on campus, has also performed in productions of operas and musicals.