The WVU Symphony Orchestra will take the stage for the first time this season on at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 27) at the Creative Arts Center.
As part of a salute to Leonard Bernstein on the 100th anniversary of his birth, WVUSO will perform the overture to “West Side Story,” Bernstein’s updated telling of the Romeo and Juliet story. A natural pairing with the “West Side Story Overture” is Tchaikovsky’s deeply moving and passionate “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture.” Beethoven’s “Egmont Overture” celebrates man’s striving for liberty and tolerance, and Liszt’s Les Preludes celebrates man’s ability to overcome life’s greatest challenges.
A pre-show talk, “Music for Survival” at 6:30 p.m., is connected with the 2018-2019 WVU Campus Read, “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel. The novel in part follows The Traveling Symphony, a group of musicians and actors who have survived a global pandemic and make their living as itinerant performers. Far from the bleak apocalypses of popular films, “Station Eleven” asks questions about what humans need to go beyond mere survival, and how in extreme circumstances, the arts might be used to help people thrive. Tickets for the concert are required to attend the talk. Find more information for the Campus Read.
WVUSO will perform in the Clay Theatre at the Creative Arts Center. Tickets for the concert are available on campus at the Mountainlair and Creative Arts Center Box Office locations (Mon. - Fri. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), by calling 304.293.SHOW (7469) and online at ticketmaster.com. Special ticket pricing is available for children ages 18 and under, WVU students with valid ID and senior citizens age 65 and up. To inquire about group rates, email cac@mail.wvu.edu.
The concert is part of WVU’s College of Creative Arts Curiosity Series, a sampling of the diverse art events that happen in the college each year. These events feature students, faculty and internationally acclaimed guest artists hosted by the School of Art & Design, School of Music and School of Theatre & Dance. Exhibitions at the Art Museum of WVU feature artists from West Virginia and around the world.