The Denison University Orchestra and Denison Concert Choir will collaborate on a concert performing the music of two giants of the classical period, Beethoven and Mozart, at 8 p.m., Saturday (Nov. 15) in Swasey Chapel. Admission is free and open to the public.

Chair of the music department Andrew Glendening conducts the Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven'sSymphony No. 1 in C major, op. 21. This piece is Beethoven's first exploration in the form he would soon dominate and serves more of as a reminder of his past than a precursor to his future "heroic" style. "The wit and humor so characteristic of his teacher, Haydn, saturate the score," says Glendening, "however, it is not without its moments of purely Beethovenian innovation and splendor that would fully blossom in his later symphonies."

The second half of the concert features Mozart'sMass in C major, K. 317. Stephen Caracciolo, director of Denison's choral organizations, will conduct the 100-voice Concert Choir and the Orchestra for the performance of the work written by Mozart at age 23. The Mass was written in 1779 and was likely performed at one of the Easter masses in Salzburg where Mozart was employed as a court organist for the Archbishop. The mass gets its nickname "Coronation Mass" from the fact that this work was performed again as part of the coronation ceremonies of Emperor Franz I of Austria who was crowned in Prague in 1792, nine months after Mozart's death. "The virtuosic choral writing coupled with an orchestration blazing with resplendent color endow this mass with its majestic character, making it a much beloved and often performed work for the concert stage," says Glendening.

The Concert Choir's performance of the Mass marks a new direction for the University. The Denison voice faculty, coordinated by Belinda Andrews-Smith, is training Denison students to perform as soloists when the University Orchestra and Concert Choir perform together. Student soloists on the Mozart project include seniors Brandon Fumanti (Wilkes Barr, Pa.) and Emily Baker (Union, Ky.), junior Jennifer Hart (Calvert City, Ky.), and first-year students Kristin Cox (Traverse City, Mich.) and Joanna Hamilton (Plainfield, Ind.).

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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