Strickler Concert Series: 'Carmina Burana' with Battle Creek Symphony

The David L. Strickler Concert Series for 2014 will be held on Friday, Feburary 21 at 7:30 in Goodrich Chapel, with Carl Orff's Carmina Burana as the featured work.  The Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, Albion College Concert Choir and Choral Union, Battle Creek Community Chorus, Battle Creek Boychoir, Girls Chorus and Young Men's Ensemble will all be collaborating on this performance.  Also featured will be Michigan Educators Male Ensemble, a new ensemble comprised of music teachers from around the state, performing folk song arrangements as well as participating in Carmina Burana.

The concert will be conducted by Anne Harrigan, Music Director of the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra.  Soloists for Carmina Burana will be Diane Penning, soprano; Gerald Blanchard, baritone, and Mark Wells, tenor.  The concert is free and open to students, faculty, staff, and the wider Albion community.

"Carmina has always been very popular with audiences," says Clayton Parr, Director of Choral Activities at Albion, "because even though the texts are medieval, they embody everyday emotions that people can identify with: joy, sadness, fate, disappointment, love, lust . . .  then of course, the music's power is in its directness.  Orff uses simple forms, repetition, and mostly conventional harmonies to drive his message home.  That has always put it near the top among classical pieces that are considered most accessible."

The concert will be repeated in Battle Creek on Saturday, February 22 at W. K. Kellogg Auditorium as part of the Battle Creek Symphony's subscription series.  For information about that concert, visit www.yourmusiccenter.org or call (269)-963-1911.  For more information about Michigan Educators Male Ensemble, visit www.michiganmeme.com. Contact the Albion College Music Department at or (517)-629-0481.

Albion to Host Liberal Arts Jazz Festival

Albion College will host the 2014 Liberal Arts Jazz Festival on Saturday, February 15 in Goodrich Chapel. The all-day festival, which welcomes big bands and jazz combos from Oakland University, Hillsdale College, Spring Arbor University, Hillsdale High School, and Albion College, will be adjudicated by famed bassist Robert Hurst (left), who has collaborated with Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr, Tony Williams and Steve Coleman.

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Albion Duo Launch Music Careers

Brian Spencer, '13, and Jane Finkel, '14, are launching what they hope will be successful careers in the music industry this summer. They make up the duo Less Is More, which has booked regular performances at Goodfellow’s and the Pink Pony on Mackinac Island and has been accepted into the Traverse City Film Festival.

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Orchestra Follows 'Traveling' Composers

Going along with Albion College's Global Diversity Year, the Albion College Symphony Orchestra presents a "travel"-themed concert Sunday, February 24, at 4 p.m. in the College's Goodrich Chapel.

The concert features four of the classical canon's most popular works, all named for locations visited or imagined by the composers. "We had a lot of fun choosing the program," said associate conductor Drew Dunham. "We came up with a long list of great music that was inspired by travel and cultures foreign to the composers."

The program includes Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italien," Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol," Griffes' "The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan" and Granger favorite "Irish Tune from County Derry."

This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Albion College Music Department, 517/629-0481, .