Award-winning Symphony Orchestra to blow away audience

The West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra will be performing its first concert of the semester today at the Creative Arts Center.

WVUSO became an official student organization in the spring of 2011, which came with the foundation of the WVUSO Cabinet. The orchestra is composed of students who are enrolled in the orchestra class as well as members from the local community.

In order to become part of the orchestra, one must take part in the auditions held at the beginning of each semester. Students are required to play a portion of a solo for their instrument, as well as play some of the difficult passages from orchestra music.

This semester, the orchestra consists of 75 members. Members can be a part of brass, wind, percussion or string sections. All the music played by the orchestra is played with a full string section, but each piece calls for different numbers of brass, wind and percussion instruments.

The WVUSO is under the conduction of the Associate Professor and Director of Orchestral Activities, Mitchell Arnold. Arnold has an extensive background in music. He received a masters in composition and a doctorate of music in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University. He has been on the faculties of Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music and Overlin College Conservatory of Music. Arnold was also a composing and performing member of the acclaimed Chicago-based ensemble, Kapture, and has participated in many other music-oriented programs and activities.

Since Arnold took over as director of the WVUSO, he’s taken the ensemble on a tour of three states in 2012. He also brought WVUSO to Texas, being one of two orchestras invited to perform at the 2014 national conference of the College Orchestra Directors Association. In 2013, the WVUSO was awarded the American Prize Special Citation for Musical and Technical excellence in a national competition.

The concert will be comprised of three pieces. The first piece that will be played is “Winter Poems,” by Canadian composer Glenn Buhr. The second is “Academic Festival Overture” by Johannes Brahms. The last piece is Symphony No. 9 in C Major “The Great” by Franz Schubert.

“Each piece has its own special quality,” Arnold said. “The first piece consists of three movements and calls for the largest number of winds, brass and percussion. The second piece is only one movement and is written by one of classical music’s great composers, Johannes Brahms, as a “thank you” piece for the University of Breslau. The piece is both masterful and fun. The last piece is the big one and consists of four movements and is exciting, moving and profound. It is an example of how the greatest music, classical or otherwise, has the power to move us, to transport us to other places.”

“The audience should expect great music played with passion and intensity.”

The concert will be held at 7:30 tonight in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre in the CAC. Tickets are $5 for students, $6 for seniors and $10 for general admission.