Orchestra treats students to the classics

A cultural treat was in store for classical music amateurs and aficionados alike when some of Penn's finest musicians took the stage on Wednesday night with the University Symphony Orchestra. Irvine Auditorium had a nearly packed house of students, parents and classical musical lovers for the performance. Under the direction of conductor Ricardo Averbach, who is in his fifth year as the music director of the orchestra, the University Symphony played four selections from notable classical works. Their pieces included Mozart's Violin Concerto no. 5 in A major, which set violinist Daniel Cohen, a College freshman, against the rest of the orchestra. College junior Talitha West-Katz, William Lai and Tony Park fronted the orchestra in violin and viola for the Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, also by Mozart. The "Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture" by Tchaikovsky concluded the performance. The highlight of the evening, though, was a performance of Peter and the Wolf, a well-known musical story composed by Prokofiev. Serving as narrator for the piece was none other than College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman. At ease on the Irvine stage, he joked,"Our wolf is so terrifying, it will be represented by six horns instead of the usual three." Wednesday's concert was the last of the year for the orchestra, which marked its return to the newly-renovated Irvine last semester with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It was a momentous occasion for the orchestra, as the performance marked the Philadelphia premiere of the Urtext edition of the piece. The University Orchestra, which just celebrated its 122nd anniversary, has reached a broad and diverse audience under the direction of Averbach. Over the past three years, all of the orchestra's concerts have been sold out, and recordings of the performances can be heard in over 50 countries thanks to Art in the States, a program produced by WGBH Radio in Boston. The group has been a part of numerous exchanges with ensembles such as the Columbia University Orchestra, the Haverford College Orchestra and Orchestra 2001, and in 1998 toured France. Averbach himself is a noted music director worldwide. A native of Bulgaria, he will be returning to the National Opera of Sofia this June for their production of Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro. His latest CD was recorded with the Sofia Symphony Orchestra and has sold more than 500,000 copies. None of this, though, compares to his most recently released project -- the Penn Wind Ensemble's first CD, narrated by University President Judith Rodin. With such a following, one might think there would be no problem attracting students to performances, but the number of students attending isn't as high as audience members say it could be. "I think students are aware that there are performances, but on-campus interest isn't very big," College sophomore Adrienne Moore said. "It's mostly family and friends."