CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu
The Drake Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of guest conductor Clarence Padilla, will present its first concert of the fall season at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main, 2507 University Ave.
The performance will begin with “Veritas” by William Dougherty, the Ellis and Nelle Levitt professor of music at Drake and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Drake University commissioned “Veritas” to celebrate the inauguration of David Maxwell as 12th president of the University. Completed in 1999, the composition was written for and premiered by the Drake Symphony Orchestra, John Canarina, conductor. The dynamism of the work is a reflection of the occasion for which it was written.
The program also includes Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (from the New World) and Mozart’s Concerto No. 5 in A Major, with new Drake faculty member Lin He, violin, as the featured soloist.
He, who joined Drake this fall as assistant professor of violin and viola, is a doctoral candidate at the Eastman School of Music, where he works under the tutelage of Zvi Zeitlin. As a soloist and chamber musician, He has performed concertos with the Houghton Philharmonia, the Jiang Su Symphony, the Tuscarawas Philharmonic and the Wooster Symphony. As an orchestral player, he plays first violin with the Des Moines Symphony and he has played first violin in the Shanghai Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony, New World Symphony, Akron Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Chicago Jazz Orchestra and Aspen Chamber Symphony. He was invited to the Rome Festival to be the concertmaster of its 2006 summer season.
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call (515) 271-3975.