By
Maggie Burnett
Arizona Summer Wildcat
UA Summer Chorus and Orchestra presents Hadyn, Mozart in first summer concert
Whether it's between members of the community, ages of the performers or musical composers, the UA Summer Chorus and Orchestra has been busy bridging gaps.
The UA Summer Chorus and Orchestra, along with members of the Tucson community, have come together to present Haydn's famous work "The Seasons" along with Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 21" this Friday night.
Once school is out for summer, the size of the chorus and orchestra reduces to nearly half its size, requiring the group's conductor, UA music professor Joseph Knott, to seek performers elsewhere in the community.
"In the spring, we post a sign up sheet for students. We also recruit people from the Tucson Symphony where the gaps are," he said. "(The symphony) has no summer season. We have to trust their arms a little bit."
Because the chorus and orchestra are assembled from the community, members of the groups range in age from 18 to 80.
"For me, it's been a wonderful experience getting such a wide range of ages with a commonality (of music)," Knott said. "A wonderful synergy has resulted with merging such a wide range of ages. It's a wonderful lesson for our younger students - singing doesn't have to end when you leave the UA."
Though he had to consult the community to complete his chorus, Knott lucked out when trying to find a pianist - music graduate student Christopher Cano has worked with Knott in the past and was more than willing to assist with the performance.
"I enjoy working with Dr. Knott - he's an incredible conductor," Cano said. "I've had good fortune to do concerts with him. He's been gracious enough to listen to my ideas and that's very rare in the music field."
Likewise, Knott said Cano has been a wonderful resource for the performance.
"He's been doing (accompaniment) for years, even from his undergrad years," Knott said. "We always try to do a concerto so we can feature him. He's a wonderful rehearsal accompanist and a superb concert pianist."
After contending with the composition of the chorus and orchestra, Knott went on to find a piece for the performance. He said he chose Haydn's "The Seasons" for a number of reasons, the main one being the year 2001 marks the 200th anniversary of the composition of Haydn's "The Seasons."
"We thought this could be a great celebration," Knott said.
He added that choosing the piece was also based on the "profound, educational integrity" the piece possesses as well as the practical utility of the piece.
"You can put (the piece) together very easily in a few rehearsals," he said.
This last reason for choosing "The Seasons" has proved to be beneficial - the chorus and orchestra have only had six rehearsals to date.
This year's performance also features tenor Grayson Hirst, soprano Vanessa Salaz and baritone Charles Roe.
"I've sung Haydn's 'The Creation' about 25 times throughout my career but never 'The Seasons," said Hirst, an associate music professor. "This is an opportunity for me to perform this wonderful work for the first time."
Both Hirst and Knott agreed that "The Seasons" is not as widely recognized as "The Creation," yet they said pairing the work with Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 21" would be a nice addition to the show.
"Mozart and Haydn are representative of 18th century classicism in music," Knott said. "Also, because Haydn's music references Mozart's, I thought this would be appropriate."
But learning to sing "The Seasons" was not as easy as simply picking up the sheet music. Although the piece was originally composed in English, this particular version of "The Seasons" will be sung in German.
"A great many people didn't know (German)," Knott said. "We had to work on the diction. I tried to give some pointers and come up with short cuts. We had a challenge with language and I think we successfully broke that barrier."
