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SU Hosts Annual Spring Music Festival April 24-May 9

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University’s annual Spring Music Festival, “From Havana to Harlem to Hollywood: A Tribute to Music of the Americas,” takes listeners on a melodic journey through the United States, Latin America and beyond.

Sponsored by the Department of Music, concerts are April 24-May 9.

SU’s annual Opera Workshop opens the festival with a tribute to 20th-century American composers Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, commemorating the 25th anniversary of their deaths in 1990. Shows are April 24-26. Curtain is 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Directed by Dr. John Wesley Wright, assisted by Tom Anderson of the Theatre and Dance Department and Dr. William Folger, chair of the Department of Music, performances are in the Great Hall of Holloway Hall.

Accompanied by Folger and Copland scholar Daniel Mathers on piano, featured works from Copland’s Old American Songs collections include “Simple Gifts,” “At the River,” “I Bought Me a Cat,” “Long Time Ago” and “Ching-a-Ring Chaw.” During Act II, the opera workshop cast performs excerpts from Bernstein’s 1971 Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers. Admission is $10, $8 for seniors and SU faculty and staff, $5 for non-SU students and children 12 and under. Tickets are available in advance at www.ticketleap.com, and at the door.

The Salisbury Chorale and University Chorale, directed by Folger, continue the tribute     during their annual Spring Concert 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2, in Holloway Hall Auditorium. The concert features Wright, trombonist and Salisbury Pops director Lee Knier, musicians from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and Salisbury Symphony Orchestra at SU (SSO), and SSO director Dr. Jeff Schoyen and concert master Dr. Sachi Murasugi. Music includes selections from Copland’s The Tender Land and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

Admission is $10, $8 for seniors and SU faculty and staff, $5 for non-SU students and children 12 and under. SU students with ID receive one ticket free.

The Salisbury Pops continues the festival with the concert “Celebrate Cinco de Mayo: South of the Border to Mexico and Beyond” 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, in Holloway Hall Auditorium. Guests and soloists include Mid-Atlantic Symphony principal trumpet Stuart Smith, UMES faculty trombonist Dr. Isrea Butler, trumpeters Glenn Luedtke and Matt DeTora, student soloist Ben Wilshusen, SU guitarist Dr. Danielle Cumming and visiting guitarist Vendim Thaqi, SU’s Young Guitarist in Residence. Selections include two “Fandango”s (both the Joesph Turrin and Frank Perkins compositions), Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concerto de Aranjuez” and a Tijuana Brass medley.

The SU Jazz Ensemble’s annual Spring Concert, directed by Jerry Tabor, is 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 7, in Holloway Hall Auditorium. Selections include Sonny Rollins’ “Pent Up House” and “Oleo,” Bobby Watson’s “Dreams So Real,” Willie Maiden’s “Maiden Voyage,” John Mills’ “Two Finger Punch,” Thelonious Monk’s “Skippy,” and Cid Robin and Charles Shavers’ “Undecided,” arranged by Mike Tomaro.

Admission to the pops and jazz concerts is free.

The festival culminates with the SSO’s annual Spring Concert, “A Broadway Star Comes Home: Music From Stage and Screen,” featuring SU alumna Jennifer Hope Wills at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 9, in Holloway Hall Auditorium.

Her roles on Broadway have included Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera, Belle in Beauty and the Beast and Eileen in Wonderful Town (co-starring opposite Brooke Shields). She participates in a pre-concert question-and-answer session 1 p.m. Friday, May 8, in Teacher Education and Technology Center Room 153.

With the SSO she performs Broadway favorites including “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” from The Phantom of the Opera, “A Little Bit in Love” from Wonderful Town, “The Hills Are Alive” from The Sound of Music, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel, “My White Knight” from The Music Man and “If I Were a Bell” from Guys and Dolls, among others.

From Broadway, the SSO then takes listeners to Hollywood with the themes from Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Pink Panther and Schindler’s List, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Allegretto from The King’s Speech.

Admission is $25, $20 for seniors age 60 and older, and $5 for children 18 and under, SU faculty and staff, and non-SU students. SU student ID holders receive one ticket free. Advance tickets are available online at www.SalisburySymphonyOrchestra.org and at the Guerrieri University Center Information Desk.

For more information about the festival call 410-543-6385 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.