The University of St. Thomas welcomes the public to the music performances listed below. All will be held on the university’s St. Paul campus unless noted otherwise. Admission is free. For more information, call the St. Thomas Music Department, (651) 962-5850.
March performances:
- 2 p.m. Sunday, March 7, in O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Ave.: The UST Bands present a concert featuring the world premiere of “Duende” by commissioned Spanish composer Luis Serrano Alarcón. The concert, with St. Thomas’ Symphonic Band (conducted by Dr. Douglas Orzolek) and Symphonic Wind Ensemble (conducted by Dr. Matthew George), also features music by Clarke, Debussy, Frescobaldi and Persichetti.The Symphonic Wind Ensemble recently returned from a 10-day performance tour of Italy and Sicily, performing in the cities of Rome, Messina, Catania and Campodarsego.
- 8 p.m. Monday, March 8, in Brady Educational Center auditorium: The annual Festival Orchestra Concert, in which pairs St. Thomas music students with members of area professional orchestras, includes Schubert's "Sonata Arpeggione," transcribed and performed by senior guitarist Leandra Hubka; Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," performed by junior guitarist Nick Kor; and the premiere of "Symphony in A," composed by senior Josh Bauder.
- Felix Hell
- 8:15 p.m. Monday, March 15, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas: Award-winning 24-year-old German organ virtuoso Felix Hell gives a recital. A liturgical and performing organist since he was 8, Hell has given recitals in his native Germany as well as two dozen countries around the world. He has performed all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s and Felix Mendelssohn’s works for organ three times in the United States and Germany.Hell, who won a full-tuition merit scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York City in 1999, enrolled at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2001. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in 2004, when he was 18. He since has earned an Artist Diploma and a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
In addition to a full concert, workshop and master class schedule on both sides of the Atlantic, Hell is organ artist associate at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in New York City and distinguished organist in residence at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pa., where he also is assistant professor at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music. His discography includes eight critically acclaimed CDs, and his music has been broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio as well as by the BBC and radio stations in Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.
- 6 and 8 p.m. Sunday, March 21, in Brady Educational Center auditorium: The UST Chamber Singers present “An Evening of Musical Theater Selections.” Student soloists and groups perform, and the choir sings “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” (1957), “All I Ask of You” from “Phantom of the Opera” (1986) and the opening scene from “The Music Man” (1957).
