Purchase College Celebrates the Season with a Wide Range of Concerts

The Purchase College Conservatory of Music will mark the holiday season by presenting several concerts. Performances, which feature students selected from the highly competitive conservatory, begin November 10 and culminate in a presentation of Mozart’s Mass in C minor by the Purchase Symphony Orchestra and Purchase College Chorus on December 11.

“The Purchase College Conservatory of Music is an incredible resource for the community,” says James Undercofler, interim director of the Conservatory at Purchase College, SUNY. “Our students are among the most talented and professional in the country. We are thrilled to invite the public to enjoy their efforts and to witness their talents before they disperse for concert halls, festivals, and jazz clubs around the world after graduation.”

Highlights in November and December include a beloved fully-staged opera, contemporary music by iconic composer Steve Reich, music celebrating African American traditions, a major work by Mozart, and jazz concerts that encompass the best of contemporary and classic Latin and American jazz.

CONCERT SCHEDULE

All concerts will be held at Purchase College, SUNY, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY. All events at the Conservatory of Music are free and open to the public. Events at The Neuberger Museum of Art are $10 for the public. Tickets are available at the Museum’s box office. Events at The Performing Arts Center require tickets. To order tickets, please visit www.artscenter.org or call 914.251.6200.

Purchase Percussion Ensemble

Thursday, November 10, 8:00pm

Conservatory of Music, Recital Hall

Free

Dominic Donato, Artistic Director

Steve Reich - Nagoya Marimbas (1994)

Dominic Donato - Plan B (2016) Premiere Performance

Robert Paterson - Stealing Thunder (2000)

Steve Reich - Drumming Part I (1971)

Faculty Concert

Friday, November 11, 7:00pm

Conservatory of Music, Recital Hall

Free

An evening featuring the talented faculty members from Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music performing a wide selection of music from classical to contemporary.

Performers to include:

Bradley Brookshire, Harpsichord

Jakub Ciupinski, Theremin

Ayako Oshima, Clarinet

Paul Ostrovsky, Piano

Joao Luiz, Guitar

Gary Smulyan, Baritone Saxophone

Kenny Washington, Drums

Doug Weiss, Bass

Whiskey Heart (Featuring Chris Anderson and Rebecca Haviland)

Soul Voices Choir: Goin’ Up Yonder!

Wednesday, November 16, 7:00pm

Conservatory of Music, Recital Hall

Free

Pete Malinverni, Artistic Director

Soul Voices celebrates the diverse and talented student body of Purchase College. Comprised of young people of various backgrounds, interests, and major study areas, the singers in the group come together to experience and express to their audience the unity possible via the great and universal gift of the human voice.

Goin’ Up Yonder’s focus is on music born of the African-American church tradition – music that speaks to the recognition of the unimaginable cruelty visited upon the earliest African-Americans, brought here as slaves, who still found a way, through music, to imagine a better future.

Purchase Contemporary Ensemble: Steve Reich at 80

Thursday, November 17, 8:00pm

Conservatory of Music, Recital Hall

Free

Drumming Part I (1971)

Vermont Counterpoint (1982)

Eight Lines (1983)

Nagoya Marimbas (1994)

Cello Counterpoint (2003)

Dominic Donato, Artistic Director

This concert honors American composer and local resident Steve Reich in celebration of his 80th birthday. The Purchase Contemporary Ensemble performs a varied selection of his works from the past 45 years.

Purchase Symphony Orchestra

Friday, November 18, 7:00pm

Conservatory of Music, Recital Hall

Free

Varèse: Octandre

Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57

Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

Charles Neidich, Conductor

DukHyun Sung, Clarinet

This evening features the winner of the Purchase College Concerto Competition, DukHyun Sung, under the baton of the internationally recognized clarinetist and conductor Charles Neidich. Rounding out the program are Varèse's Octandre, his only work for "intimate" ensemble, and Brahms’ First Symphony, which is inspired by the Beethoven’s great Ninth Symphony.

Camerata: The “Other” Four Seasons

Wednesday, November 30, 12:30pm

Neuberger Museum

Admission $10 / Free for Purchase College faculty, staff, and students and Museum Members

Bradley Brookshire, Artistic Director

Vivaldi’s set of four violin concertos known as The Four Seasons has achieved a lasting place in the repertoire; but there are other, less-well-known concertos for strings that give those concertos some competition. The Purchase College Camerata presents four of its leading string players in a group of equally stellar, but lesser performed, concertos by Bach, Vivaldi, and their contemporaries.

Purchase Jazz Orchestra

Thursday, December 1, 7:00pm

Conservatory of Music, Choral Hall

Free

Todd Coolman & Jon Faddis, Artistic Directors

The Purchase Jazz Orchestra is a 17-piece big band that performs jazz from every era. From staples like Ellington and Basie, to more modern works by today’s leading composers and arrangers like McNeely, Clayton, Abene, and Schneider, the PJO swings and is always a pleasure to listen to. Grammy Award-winning jazz bassist Todd Coolman and legendary trumpeter Jon Faddis direct the group.

Purchase New Music

Thursday, December 1, 8:00pm

Conservatory of Music, Recital Hall

Free

Dominic Donato, Artistic Director

This concert features the next generation of composers at their best. Students of the Purchase College composition studio spend the semester refining pieces written specifically for the Purchase New Music Ensemble, which are as diverse and creative as they are exciting.

Purchase Latin Jazz Orchestra

Wednesday, December 7, 8:00pm

Conservatory of Music, Choral Hall

Free

David DeJesus, Artistic Director

The Purchase Latin Jazz Orchestra is an exciting ensemble that performs music from all over Latin America. Featuring top students from the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, the PLJO explores numerous genres including Mambo, Cha-Cha, Danzon, Festejo, and Porro. Whether performing classic compositions by the masters or newer works commissioned for the ensemble, seeing and hearing the PLJO is always a memorable occasion.

Purchase Opera: Amahl and the Night Visitors

Friday, December 9, 7:00pm

Saturday, December 10, 1:00pm

The Performing Arts Center

Adults $20, Children $10

Jacque Trussel, Director

Hugh Murphy, Music Director & Conductor

Based on Italian folk tales of the Nativity and Epiphany, Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors is a retelling of the story of the Magi from the point of view of a young disabled boy named Amahl, who with his widowed mother, lives in poverty among the shepherds near Bethlehem.

This fully-staged opera is performed in English.

Purchase Symphony Orchestra & Chorus: Mozart Great Mass in C minor

Sunday, December 11, 5:00pm

The Performing Arts Center

Adults $20, Seniors $15

David J. Recca, Conductor

The Purchase Symphony Orchestra & Purchase Chorus come together to present Mozart’s powerful Great Mass in C minor. This inspiring work, featuring student soloists, contains an extraordinary range of style and depth of expression.

About Purchase College–SUNY

Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspiration for Purchase was to create a dynamic campus that combined conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences, in order to inspire an appreciation for both intellectual and artistic talents in all students. Today, Purchase College–SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu