So how do you get a virtual date to an online Concert, Opera & Drama Series performance? Once you’ve settled that problem, do you wire flowers or just give your date a poke on Facebook?
This fall the BJU Symphony Orchestra will break new ground with a live webcast of its October 7 concert featuring world-famous pianist Joyce Yang. This exciting new venture will allow the Division of Music to showcase the quality of its program to a wide-ranging audience at the same time we expose our students to a world-class musician.
Dr. Darren Lawson, dean of the School of Fine Arts and Communication, notes, “We are committed to offering our students top-quality cultural programs that support our liberal arts mission, and I'm very excited that we are experimenting with a live webcast of one of our cultural events. Alumni away from Greenville and prospective students will be able to enjoy a superb concert.”
Ms. Yang is a native of Korea who burst onto our national stage as a silver medalist at the 2005 Van Cliburn competition. Still a teenager, she was the youngest performer in the competition but became a musical and media sensation, receiving prizes for the best chamber work performance and for the best performance of a new work in addition to her silver medal.
She has appeared with the finest orchestras in the world, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. R. Christine Lee, conductor of the BJU Symphony Orchestra, affirms, “I am very excited for the students in our orchestra to meet and perform with one of the most talented pianists of this generation. She is dynamic and sensitive as a performer, and she is a warm and generous person.”
The concert will commence with the brash, stirring Festival Overture by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Ms. Yang will join the orchestra in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s colossal Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18. The second half of the concert will feature Gustav Mahler’s hauntingly beautiful Adagietto from Symphony No. 5. Danzon No. 2 by contemporary Mexican composer Arturo Marquez will bring the concert to a rollicking, foot-stomping close.
If you’ve solved the date and flowers issue, you probably want to know how to find the link to the concert webcast. It couldn’t be easier—a few minutes before the performance (the concert starts at 8 p.m. EST), go to the homepage of bju.edu where you will find a button that will link you to the webcast. Please join us for an exciting, groundbreaking evening of music.
Paul Overly