University Symphony Orchestra plays Stravinsky, Brahms

KEVNEY MOSES

Conductor Mark Cedel directs the UGA Symphony Orchestra during a rehearsal in the Performing Arts Center.

Johannes Brahms wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1881. Igor Stravinsky wrote his Symphony in Three Movements in 1945. Brahms’ Concerto is structured like a symphony with four movements, and, with a limited focus on the solo piano, is orchestral in its scope. Stravinsky’s Symphony is structured like a concerto, and has a neoclassical style, with elements of jazz and rumba.

“It’s an interesting juxtaposition,” said orchestra director Mark Cedel. “It’s a combination that most people wouldn’t put together.”

But who better to take on this contrasting program than the University Symphony Orchestra?

The Symphony Orchestra will open this year’s Second Thursday concert series with their performance tonight. The Second Thursday concerts are the only performances for which the School of Music charges a fee, and the proceeds go to the School of Music’s undergraduate scholarship fund.

The eclectic program for tonight’s concert features contrasting, not complementing pieces, but the orchestra looks forward to the challenge.

“Personally I like it when there’s a lot of contrast in the program, and that’s certainly the case here,” said David Peyton, a Music School graduate student from Dalton. “These pieces are polar opposites, pretty much.”

Tonight’s concert represents comes after a rigorous practice schedule for last three weeks, especially for freshman who just joined the ensemble. The orchestra rehearses twice a week for six hours total.

The concert will be the first this year for an orchestra that has grown in prominence as better undergraduates stay in state and the program draws graduate students.

“The word’s out on the street that things are happening at Georgia,” Cedel said. “What’s always great is seeing the music come alive in the eyes of the students.”