The DuPage Symphony Orchestra will present its season finale, “Symphonic Song,” at 7:30PM on Sat., May 13, 2023, at Wentz Concert Hall.
Featuring orchestral music inspired by vocal music, the performance will showcase the talents of soprano soloist Sarah Brailey, a Grammy-award winner and Director of Vocal Studies at the University of Chicago, hailed by The New York Times for her “radiant, liquid tone” and “sweetly dazzling singing.”
The concert will open with Samuel Barber’s exuberant “Overture to The School for Scandal.” This prize-winning overture offers an energetic introduction to the program.
Brailey will perform Barber’s lyrical rhapsody Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a nostalgic and dreamlike piece sung from a child’s perspective. The work evokes the southern United States at the turn of the century.
The second half of the concert is dedicated to Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 1 in D Major, which is one of the most audacious first symphonies ever composed. Mahler’s symphony includes a special setting of the children’s tune “Frère Jacques” recast as a funeral dirge, emanating from the lowest string voices for an ironic twist on a familiar melody. This epic work loosely depicts “a strong, heroic man, his life and sufferings, his battles and defeat at the hands of Fate.”
Adding to the already impressive lineup, the DSO will host the talented young vocalists of the Scullen Middle School Honors Ensemble, who will serenade DSO patrons a cappella in the Wentz lobby.
The DSO also will host a free Open Rehearsal at Wentz Hall from 7PM to 10PM on Thurs., May 11, which will include a Q&A session with Brailey.
Tickets are $15-$43, with student tickets available for $5 using promo code STUDENT5. To purchase, visit dupagesymphony.org, call the DSO Box Office (Tuesday-Friday, 10AM-3PM) at (630) 778-1003, or email patronservices@dupagesymphony.org.
Wentz Concert Hall is located in the North Central College Fine Arts Center, 171 E. Chicago Ave.
