UK Symphony Orchestra to present 1st spring concert Feb. 16
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 13, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra (UKSO) presents their first concert of the spring semester, with Mendelssohn’s music from "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, at the Singletary Center for the Arts. The concert will also feature Richard Stauss’s epic tone poem "Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life)," and the Kentucky premiere of Mathilde Wantenaar's "Prélude à nuit américaine."
The Mendelssohn, a collaboration with the UK Treble Choir, features some of Mendelssohn's most loved music, including the "Scherzo" and the famous "Wedding March." The program will open with the premiere of the new work by young Dutch composer Mathilde Wantenaar, and close with Ein Heldenleben, one of the most sensational and epic pieces of music in the orchestral repertoire.
The UKSO is conducted by John Nardolillo, and the UK Treble Choir is directed by Lori Hetzel. The concert will feature soloists Grace Platt (soprano), Lydia Rufin (mezzo-soprano), Rebekah New (as narrator) and Stanley Kuo (violin).
Tickets for UK Symphony Orchestra concerts are $14 for general admission, $7 for students and free for UK students with a valid ID before the day of the performance (at the Singletary Center ticket office).
Tickets are available through the Singletary Center ticket office online at www.singletarycenter.com, by phone at 859-257-4929 or in person at the venue. Children 6 and older are welcome.
Founded in 1918, the UKSO is a 100-member all-student orchestra, presenting classical, chamber, opera and education concerts. The group is made up of undergraduate and graduate students from across the United States, Asia, South America, Africa and Europe. The orchestra has regularly performed with world-renowned concert artists including Itzhak Perlman, Lang Lang, Sarah Chang, Gil Shaham, Lynn Harrell, Marvin Hamlisch, Denyce Graves, Christine Brewer, Pink Martini, Ronan Tynan, Mark O’Connor, Wynonna Judd, Keith Lockhart and Arlo Guthrie.
UK’s orchestra has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., tours the state of Kentucky regularly, and has toured China, playing concerts in major concert halls in Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Yangzhou and Beijing. The orchestra’s performance at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts was broadcast on China Central Television, a network reaching more than 1.5 billion viewers. In the fall of 2010, the orchestra played for the opening ceremonies of the World Equestrian Games, a performance that featured more than 1,500 performers and 200 horses that was seen live on NBC in the United States by 39 million people, and by an estimated 500 million more television viewers worldwide.
Maestro John Nardolillo has appeared with more than 30 of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Boston Pops, the National Symphony, and principal orchestras of Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, Milwaukee, Utah, Columbus, Indianapolis, Oregon, Fort Worth, Buffalo, Alabama, Louisville, Missouri, North Carolina, Toledo, Vermont, Columbus, Omaha and Hawaii. He also recently conducted concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia; and Carnegie Hall in New York. Nardolillo made his professional conducting debut in 1994 at the Sully Festival in France and has since made conducting appearances in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Czech Republic and China. He has led major American orchestras in subscription series concerts, summer and pops concerts, education concerts and tours, and for television and radio broadcasts. Nardolillo is the artistic director of the Prague Summer Nights Music Festival, and in 2004, he joined the faculty at the UK School of Music, where he serves as the director of orchestras.
The UK Symphony Orchestra is housed in the School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts. The UK School of Music has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, music therapy, composition, and theory and music history.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.