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Dana school of music Orchestra in return to Powers, downtown
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
The Dana Symphony Orchestra of Youngstown State University, led by Professor Stephen L. Gage, will return to Powers Auditorium on Thursday to present a concert it is calling “Beethoven’s Fateful Fifth!”
The concert will mark the first time the DSO has performed at Powers in about 10 years and is part of the school of music’s effort to be part of the downtown arts and culture district.
It starts at 7:30 p.m.
“We’re trying to connect back with downtown and be part of its revitalization,” said Randy Goldberg, director of the Dana School of Music. “It’s also a way to connect with the different arts organizations in the city.”
A faculty piano quartet will perform at the adjacent Ford Family Recital Hall in December, and the DSO will give another concert at Powers in February.
The DSO has performed at Stambaugh Auditorium for the past decade or so.
“We want our students to have the experience of performing in beautiful theaters with great acoustics,” said Goldberg.
Thursday’s concert will open with Brahms’ most frequently performed work, “Academic Festival Overture.” In 1879, the University of Breslau conferred a doctor of philosophy degree upon Brahms, and in gratitude, the composer wrote the Overture, which includes musical themes that were popular in the late 19th century.
After the Brahms’ piece, a chamber ensemble from within the larger orchestra will accompany soloist Erika Walker, mezzo-soprano and a 2017 Dana Young Artist Contest winner, on the second and fifth movements of Mahler’s classic, “Kindertotenlieder.”
Walker, a senior vocal performance student from Canfield, participated in the South Korean tour with the Dana Chorale in May.
She has been seen on the stage most recently as Madame Flora in Menotti’s “The Medium” last spring at YSU. She also played the role of Despina in YSU’s production of “Cosi fan Tutte “in 2016.
She is in the Opera Western Reserve Young Artist program and will be seen in the chorus of OWR’s production of “Lucia di Lammermoor” on Nov. 10 at Stambaugh Auditorium.
Walker will graduate in December and hopes to participate in the OperaWorks program in Los Angeles in January. Upon graduating, she also plans to audition for the Air Force Singing Sergeants and the Cincinnati Young Artists program.
The second half of Thursday’s program will include Beethoven’s immortal Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67.
Scholars argue about the motivation and inspiration of this work with some feeling the symphony depicts a composer who realized the time had passed when he would ever hear again, and that this work was an overt and emotionally oriented testament to his fate.
Others, however, see this as a politically motivated musical reaction to the ongoing war (1803-1815) between Napoleon’s French Army and Beethoven’s beloved Austria.
Whatever the inspiration was, this is the symphony that, along with an image of an agitated and disheveled Beethoven, has come to represent greatness in music through the repeated rhythmical sequence of three short notes followed by one long note.
Tickets for the concert are $7 ($6 for students and senior citizens and free for anyone with a valid YSU ID) and are available by phone at 330-744-0264, in person at the DeYor Performing Arts Center box office, 260 W. Federal St.; online at youngstownsymphony.com, and at the door before the concert.