BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — If you're looking for a little music to uplift your summer, consider this major event at FAU:
The 60-piece Klezmer Company Orchestra (KCO) conducted by Maestro Aaron Kula, and joined by soprano Jennifer Tipton and baritone Graham Fandrei, will present “Some Enchanted Evening: Music of Rodgers and Hammerstein,” on Sunday, June 23 at 3 p.m. at Florida Atlantic University’s Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus.
“I have always loved the beautiful melodies and underlying message of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals,” said Kula, director of music performance and education at FAU Libraries. “This brilliant creative duo composed emotionally-charged songs that make you laugh and cry. I am extremely excited about conducting many of my favorite selections for this concert.”
The musical extravaganza will mark the eighth annual Spirit of America Concert and will feature 13 songs from “South Pacific,” “Oklahoma!,” “The King and I,” “Carousel” and “The Sound of Music,” all popular musicals by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, one of the most celebrated writing teams in Broadway’s history. The duo often went beyond entertainment and addressed such global issues as tolerance, interracial relationships, anti-Semitism, racism and adversity with their music.
KCO, the professional ensemble in residence at FAU Libraries, will open the concert with “Academic Festival Overture,” an exuberant arrangement written by composer Johannes Brahms in 1880 to celebrate his honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Breslau. The ensemble will perform original orchestrations from Broadway and film productions, including “What A Beautiful Morning,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “Getting to Know You,” “Shall We Dance,” “I Have Dreamed” and “Climb Every Mountain.” “Some Enchanted Evening,” a show tune from the 1949 musical “South Pacific,” will also be performed. The song was the biggest popular hit to come out of any Rodgers and Hammerstein show.
Tipton and Fandrei will make their debut with KCO during the concert. Tipton, an Orange Park native, has performed operatic roles at Festival South, the Natchez Festival of Music and Operafestival di Roma. She also has sung roles with the Frost Opera Theatre and has been hailed as a “vocal standout” by South Florida Classical Review. Fandrei, a Miami resident, has appeared with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Center City Opera-Philadelphia, Charleston Chamber Orchestra, Florida Grand Opera, Knoxville Opera and Opera Naples. He has performed more than 20 opera roles throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. South Florida Classical Review described his voice as “vocally lustrous” in a recent review.
KCO will close the concert with patriotic songs, including Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s rousing “1812 Overture,” a signature work associated with Independence Day celebrations. The score is full of French and Russian patriotic melodies that serve as a narrative for the 1812 battle between the Russian forces and Napoleon’s army. The orchestra creates sounds that simulate canons bursting in air as the work draws to the finale.
The annual concert salutes FAU Libraries’ Spirit of America collection, which was donated to FAU Libraries in 2006 by Marvin and Sybil Weiner, who are now both deceased. The collection contains more than 13,000 printed items from the American Revolutionary era and other imprints, mostly American, British and French.
Concert tickets are $18-$40. To purchase tickets, call 800-564-9539 or visit http://www.fauevents.com. To experience KCO, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/KlezmerCompany or http://www.klezmercompany.com.
