BSO Bids ‘Adieu’ to 2011-12 Season with French-Themed Chorale Concert

BSO Bids ‘Adieu’ to 2011-12 Season with French-Themed Chorale Concert
Editor: David Mills


ORONO, ME - Soprano Sarah Wolfson, baritone Andrew Wentzel and members of the University of Maine Singers and Oratorio Society will join the Bangor Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 29, for its final concert of the season at the Collins Center for the Arts in Orono.

The program for the French-themed “C’est Magnifique!” features works by French composers Gabriel Faure, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Wolfson, Wentzel and the UMaine choirs will perform Faure’s “Reqiuem,” a major cornerstone of the choral repertoire. Debussy’s Petite Suite and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin are on the first half of the program.

“We intended this program to be an exploration of French classical music,” said David Whitehill, the executive director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. “We hope to transport the listener to the romantic streets and great cathedrals of Paris.”

Wolfson was recognized by Symphony Magazine in 2011 as an Emerging Artist, and in 2007 she was awarded the first-place prize in the Concert Artists Guild competition. Her recent engagements include her Lincoln Center recital debut as the winner of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Alice Tully Hall Debut Competition, as well as recitals at the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art and the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C. A graduate of the Juilliard School, where she received the William Schuman Prize, the highest award given to a graduate student, Wolfson  was featured on the PBS American Masters documentary “The Juilliard Experience.” She is currently on the faculty of Columbia University.

Wentzel has performed in opera houses and concert halls around the world, and was declared a “vocal standout … who alone achieved a touch of human emotion through strong, sensitive singing” by Opera News following performances of Banquo in “Macbeth.” Wentzel’s recent performances include “Romeo et Juilette” with the Knoxville Opera Society, Haydn’s “The Creation” with the Virginia Arts Festival, and Handel’s “Messiah” with the Symphony Orchestra of India. He made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1985.

The University of Maine Singers, led by Dr. Dennis Cox, is an advanced concert choir whose members come from all disciplines across campus. The ensemble tours in the northeastern U.S. each spring and travels to Europe every four years. The group regularly performs with the Oratorio Society, which is directed by Ludlow Hallman, and is a mixed choral ensemble comprised of university students and members of the community. The Oratorio Society performs large choral-orchestral masterworks.

Tickets for “C’est Magnifique!” are available by calling (207) 581-1755 or 800-622-TIXX, or visiting the Bangor Symphony website, www.bangorsymphony.org. Tickets start at $16 for adults and $10 for youth.