The UMSL Symphony Orchestra performs during last week’s Masterworks from Paris concert. The event was part of the UMSL Fall Music Festival, a weeklong celebration of the arts and music hosted by the Department of Music. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)
The Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center was full of energy Monday night as concert goers grooved to jazz and swayed to the swelling voices of a gospel choir.
“The Lee Theater was packed and practically trembling – it was a fantastic evening,” said Joanna Mendoza, professor of viola and chair of the Department of Music at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
Monday’s event, Jazz and Jubilation, kicked off this year’s Fall Music Festival, a weeklong celebration of the arts and music on the UMSL campus. Mendoza said last year’s festival, which was part of UMSL’s 60th anniversary celebration, was so successful the department decided to do it again.
During Tuesday’s performance, the UMSL Symphony Orchestra joined the University Singers, along with choirs from Jefferson College and St. Louis Community College–Meramec and Bethany Worrell, to perform Francis Poulenc’s “Gloria.”
“We want the community to experience the energy and vitality of the UMSL Music Department, of the UMSL campus and of the Touhill Performing Arts Center,” Mendoza said. “The arts are a big part of UMSL and an important part of the student experience and campus culture. We want the community to see how strong and alive music is at UMSL.”
The slate of events at the Touhill featured four shows with a variety of performances from orchestral arrangements to a string quartet.
Jazz and Jubilation set the stage for the festival. Instructor Dawn Weber led a student jazz ensemble before the UMSL jazz faculty, including Weber, Dan Eubanks, Matt Henry, Joe Pastor and Neil Ostercamp, took the stage. UMSL alum Maria A. Ellis led the university’s community gospel choir, Voices of Jubilation, to close out the night.
On Tuesday, the UMSL Symphony Orchestra and the University Singers headlined Masterworks from Paris. Each ensemble performed alone and then came together, along with choirs from Jefferson College and St. Louis Community College–Meramec and Bethany Worrell, UMSL’s new director of vocal studies, for a rendition of Francis Poulenc’s “Gloria.” Mendoza noted the piece is technically virtuosic with challenging harmonies, but the ensembles were up to the task.
“Drs. David Wacyk and Jim Henry, our ensemble directors, masterfully prepared the orchestra and choirs, respectively,” she said. “It’s a huge undertaking and was a great showcase of our largest ensembles.”
Wednesday night’s Journey Through Time with a Song was all about the piano. The performance featured Mendoza and soprano Christine Brewer, but each piece was centered around Teaching Professor Alla Voskoboynikova’s skill at the keys.
The Arianna String Quartet, with help from guest clarinetist Oskar Espina Ruiz, anchored the Friday night finale: Goodbye, Hello. The title of the show is a nod to the Beatles’ song, “Hello, Goodbye,” but it was also inspired by the first piece of the program, Arnold Schoenberg’s, “String Quartet No. 1.”
“He was known for dismantling traditional harmony with atonalism, but this early quartet both looks back, with clear inspiration from older composers, and suggests newer ideas and harmonies,” Mendoza said.
The festival takes a lot of work, but Mendoza said it’s one of the most fulfilling events the department puts on.
“It takes tremendous planning and preparation,” she said. “But we love it. The UMSL Music Department is a positive, supportive community of dedicated musicians, and it comes through in the quality of our performances.”
That hard work is also having an effect on the classroom. The Department of Music has recently seen a 50% increase in enrollment, and Mendoza attributes that success, in part, to community engagement events like the festival.
“The Fall Music Festival raises the profile of UMSL and the Department of Music throughout the region,” she said. “We do a great deal of marketing to let the community know about this week of concerts. But also, our ensembles include students from across campus, not only music majors. We include alumni, faculty and staff and community members. Audiences and students see the spirit, joy and quality of our music program and want to be part of it.”
