Inauguration to Spotlight MIT Music

May 8, 1991

MIT's rich collection of musicians and composers will make a significant contribution to the events surrounding the inauguration of Charles M. Vest as MIT's 15th president.

Launched with a "Showcase Concert" on the eve of the inauguration ceremony and concluding with post-inaugural performances by the MIT choirs and the MIT Symphony Orchestra, the weekend festivities will feature the talents of MIT's student ensembles, student and faculty composers, and artists-in-residence.

The Inaugural "Showcase Concert" on Thursday, May 9, at 8pm in Kresge Auditorium will present four student groups and music by MIT student composers.

Under the direction of John Corley, the MIT Concert Band will perform Thomas McGah's Four Fantasies on Greek Folk Songs, commissioned by and dedicated to the group in 1990. The MIT Symphony Orchestra, David Epstein, conductor, will perform Schumann's Symphony No. 4 in D Minor and the MIT Chamber Chorus, under the direction of William Cutter, assistant conductor of the MIT Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus, will perform Bach's Lobet den Herrn, alle heiden. Directed by Jamshied Sharifi, The MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, recent winner of the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival and recipient of a 1991 Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Award, will perform music by Sharifi, Duke Ellington and Hoagy Carmichael. In addition, the program will feature the premiere of a song, Spring, commissioned for the inauguration by Yumi Oshima, '94, as well as songs by MIT composition students Alexander P. Rigopulos, '92, Cynthia L. Harris, '91, and Charles W. Pokorny, '91. The songs will be performed by Karol L. Bennett, soprano, and John D. McDonald, piano, artists-in-residence in music and theater arts. Tickets for the performance and for the Inaugural Ceremony are available in the Information Center (Rm 7-121), the MIT Museum Shop in the Student Center, and in Rm A-165 at Lincoln Laboratory. As seating is limited in Kresge Auditorium, ticket availability has been restricted to MIT faculty, staff, and special guests; students are encouraged to enjoy an outside broadcast of the concert from the barbeque area near the Kresge Oval (weather permitting), or to view the concert on a large screen at the ice rink in the Johnson Athletics Center. The concert will also be broadcast live on WMBR.

The Inaugural Ceremony on Friday, May 10, beginning at 9:30am with a procession to Killian Court, will feature the premieres of special fanfares composed for the occasion by four members of the music faculty, John H. Harbison, Peter Child, Edward Cohen, and Evan Ziporyn.

Harbison's Vest-Pocket Fanfare, and Child's Fanfare will be performed as processionals, Cohen's New from Old will precede the presentation of Dr. Vest, and Ziporyn's Bossa Nova, (the title a tongue-in-cheek reference to MIT's "new boss" rather than an indication of a musical style) will be played as a recessional.

In addition, the Chamber Choir will perform songs by Purcell, Morley, and Marenzio and the National Anthem will be sung by Ellen T. Harris, associate provost for the arts and professor of music, an accomplished soprano soloist. The program will also include Professor Stephen Tapscott reciting his "Poem of Welcome," written for the inauguration. MIT students, faculty and staff are invited to the ceremony; tickets are available through the sources listed above.

The MIT Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus will join forces in a post-inaugural performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah, on Friday, May 10, at 8pm in Kresge Auditorium. The concert will be led by noted New York City conductor Amy Kaiser, filling in for director John Oliver (who is recovering from a recent injury).

The performance will feature Boston-area professionals: Suzanne Balaes, soprano; Mary Westbrook-Geha, mezzo soprano; Paul Kirby, tenor; Paul Rowe, baritone; Joseph Hardy, boy soprano; and MIT student soloists: Susan Jackson '91, soprano; Alice Lin '89, mezzo soprano; and graduate student Kenneth Goodson, baritone. Combined, the two MIT vocal groups will number 170 and will be accompanied by 50 professional musicians.

The concert is dedicated to the memory of Klaus Liepmann, the first full-time professor of music at MIT and the founder of the present MIT music program, who died last July. Admission is $5 at the door, free for MIT students.

MIT Symphony Orchestra clarinetist Paul Green will be featured soloist with the MIT Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of David Epstein, in a performance of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto on Saturday, May 11, at 8pm in Kresge Auditorium. A distinguished soloist whose performing career began with an invitation at age 13 to play in a New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, Green recently returned to performing after a 10-year career in law. In 1988 he won the Distinguished Artists competition sponsored by Artists International, and has received high praise for his recent New York City recitals. Also on the program will be Brahms' Academic Festival Overture and Copland's Appalachian Spring. Admission is $1 at the door.

Dr. and Mrs. Vest were closely involved in the planning and selection of music involved in the inaugural events, and according to Professor Harris, felt strongly that the talents of MIT's faculty and students should be featured prominently.

"We were enthusiastic about finding music that was particularly loved by the Vests," she said, "and I was delighted by the active role they played in making MIT's musicians such a significant part of the inaugural activities. Beyond the four premieres [for the inaugural ceremony]," she continued, "the music comes largely from the celebratory compositions of the Baroque period.

"It is impossible to imagine any kind of significant ceremony without the special inspiration provided by music," Harris concluded, "and it is wonderfully appropriate to celebrate the investiture of a new president with new music by MIT's talented students and faculty."

A version of this article appeared in the May 8, 1991 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 35, Number 31).

URL: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1991/inauguration-0508.html