The UTRGV Jazz Orchestra performs during the Student Ensemble Series last year in the Texas Southmost College Arts Center in Brownsville. ANA CAHUICHE/THE RIDER FILE PHOTO
The UTRGV Patron of the Arts program this week will present performances by orchestras, as well as a faculty recital and operas.
The events will take place in the Texas Southmost College Arts Center in Brownsville, and the Performing Arts Complex and the Library Auditorium on the Edinburg campus.
At 7:30 tonight, the UTRGV Jazz Orchestra will perform in Brownsville. Also performing will be the Harlingen High School Jazz Ensemble, directed by Ronnie Rios, which is ranked as one of the top high school jazz ensembles in the country by the National Association of Jazz Educators.
The Jazz Orchestra, directed by Lecturer Albert Lo, will feature local jazz trumpeter Ray Vasquez, tenor saxophonist Michael Ramirez and singer Frank Morris, performing Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine,” Michael Bublé’s version of “Moondance” by Van Morrison and Gordon Goodwin’s “Sing, Sang.”
Tickets are $5.
On the Edinburg campus, the Percussion Chamber Orchestra will perform at 7:30 tonight in the Performing Arts Complex. The orchestra will also perform at 7:30 p.m. April 24 in Brownsville. Tickets are $5.
At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, music Professor Peter Dabrowski will conduct the University Symphony Orchestra in the Performing Arts Complex.
“This event really combines talent of so many students and at the same time talents of their professors.” Dabrowski said. “This event showcases the quality of education we are providing at the UTRGV.”
The program will feature virtuosic works for violin and clarinet by Vieuxtemps and Rossini. The orchestra will also perform different Jose Pablo Moncayo’s “Huapango,” Johannes Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5”and “Star Trek Through The Years” by Calvin Custer. Tickets are $5.
The Faculty Showcase Recital, organized by Krista Jobson, an assistant professor of flute, will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Performing Arts Complex. The recital will feature works by Sergio Assad, Eric Ewazen and Frédéric Chopin.
“What’s so great about music is that it is such an intimate sort of art form where the art is being created right in front of you, so it’s really quite exciting to go to a live performance,” Jobson said.
She said the recital will be an evening to share the vast amount of talent represented by the music faculty on both campuses.
“This is going to be a chance for our students, our colleagues and the community to join us and be able to hear a wide variety of music and lots of style,” Jobson said. “There is going to be pieces with videos, stereo playback [and] there’s going to be ensembles.”
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students with ID and seniors 65 and older.
At 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday in the Library Auditorium, the University Opera will present Johann Strauss II’s “Die Fledermaus.”
Assistant Professor David Sadlier, who serves as operatic conductor and stage director, said the event will be the testing ground for voice students as singers and actors.
“That really is the point of what they are training for, is to perform opera, and the only way you can do that professionally is if you get student experience doing it,” Sadlier said.
For instrumental students playing in the orchestra and theatre department students who are helping as stage managers and producers, this event can be a career potential for them, he said.
“Opera is unlike what people think opera is,” Sadlier said. “It’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of laughing, it’s a lot of ridiculousness. There’s a lot of dancing. Really, just like a great time.”
Preferred seating tickets for adults cost $20 and $15 for children and seniors. The tickets include an Act II champagne or sparkling cider toast and dessert.
General admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.
The Bravo Opera Company will present “Orpheus in the Underworld” by Jacques Offenbach at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday in Brownsville.
Catherine Compton, a lecturer in voice and director of the Bravo Company, said the concert will be a humorous take on the Greek myth.
“It is definitely a student-led experience and the show itself is very funny, a comedy that includes the famous ‘can-can’ music,” Compton said.
The original story narrates a loving couple and in the version presented by this production, the couple will not be in such a happy relationship.
“The most exciting thing about the production, for me, is the level of talent of the students who are performing,” Compton said. “The students are doing a great job at bringing each of their characters to life and conveying the story with a lot of humor and a lot of heart.”
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.
All tickets can be purchased online at patron.utrgv.edu or at the box venue one hour before the event.
For more information, call the Texas Southmost College Arts Center at 295-3695 in Brownsville. In Edinburg, call the Performing Arts Complex at 665-3881 and the Library Auditorium at 665-2752.
