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CELEBRATE! MIT Symphony Orchestra opens 2008-2009 season with a bang

Cambridge, MA... To kick off the 2008-2009 season, the MIT Symphony Orchestra (MITSO), under the direction of Dr. Adam Boyles, will present “Celebrate!” a concert of celebratory works, two of which will showcase the talents of MIT students and faculty. The concert will take place on Friday, October 10 at 8 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, 84 Massachusetts Ave. Kresge Auditorium is handicapped accessible and is located opposite MIT's main entrance on Massachusetts Ave. This event is open to the public, and admission is $5 at the door.

“Celebrate!” will begin with Dvorak's fiery Carnival Overture, a work that depicts the festive time prior to Lent in Roman Catholicism.

Carnival will set the stage for the celebration of two MIT musicians featured in this concert: Professor Peter Child and Matthew Serna ’09.

Just in time for October's Halloween festivities, MITSO will perform Child's Punkie Night, a work he says refers to a “hallowe’en-like custom in parts of England.” According to Child, the music is wrought with “‘goolies’… wailing, cavorting and carrying on.”

Matthew Serna, a senior studying brain and cognitive science, will be the featured guest soloist for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

The evening will culminate with a performance of Joaquin Turina's masterpiece Sinfonia Sevillana. The final movement of this important Spanish work from 1920 entitled Fiesta en San Juan de Aznalfarache, is an explosion of colorful harmonies and rhythms that will usher in MITSO’s new season with a bang.