The Texas Tech University School of Music is hosting the 40th Annual President’s Scholarship Concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (May 7) at the Lubbock Civic Center Theatre (1501 Mac Davis Lane). The concert features the Texas Tech University Symphony Orchestra and choirs, with the collaborating talents of the West Texas Children’s Choir and members of the Lubbock Chorale. Introductory remarks will be made by Clinton Barrick, station manager and director of programming for KTTZ Public Media.
The concert will celebrate those who donated to School of Music scholarships as well as the music students who received scholarships in the past year. Admission to the concert is free, with tax-deductible donations accepted to support School of Music scholarships.
The concert will showcase the entirety of German composer Carl Orff’s celebrated cantata “Carmina Burana,” which is based on 24 poems from a medieval manuscript dating back to the 12th century. With texts in Latin, French and Middle High German, the primarily satirical poems are organized into five sections that evoke celebrations of springtime, dancing in a meadow, food and drink in a tavern and an audience at the Court of Love. The complete cantata is bookended by a movement called “O Fortuna,” recognizable to many as a popular staple of dramatic choral music.
David E. Becker, director of orchestral studies, and Richard Bjella, director of choral studies, will direct the concert. Guest vocalists for “Carmina Burana” include renowned operatic baritone and Texas Tech alumnus Weston Hurt, soprano and Texas Tech alumna Jackie Stevens, and tenor and Texas Tech graduate student Gustavo Steiner Neves.
(News release from Texas Tech University)
