Princeton University Orchestra Performs The Nutcracker Suite and Jazz Variations

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by PNN Editor in Arts, Events, Music

On Friday, December 11th and Saturday, December 12th the Princeton University Orchestra conducted by Michael Pratt will perform their holiday concert in Richardson Auditorium. The program will include Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite, Ellington/Strayhorn – Nutcracker Suite (after Tchaikovsky) with the Princeton University Concert Jazz Ensemble, Anthony Branker, Director, Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and R. Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.

The Princeton University Orchestra is made up of Princeton undergraduate and graduate student musicians. Now in its 111th year, the orchestra plays a wide range of works by composers from the Classical period up through freshly-composed works by Princeton composers. Conducted for the 30th year by Michael Pratt, the Orchestra is continuing its tradition of fine musicmaking in its 2007-2008 season.

Michael Pratt, conductor of the Princeton University Orchestra

The orchestra began with a group of professional musicians from the New York Symphony and Philharmonic Societies who performed a series of concerts at Alexander Hall in 1896, the first on February 13. The proceeds were “devoted to the funds for the establishment of a School of Music for the study of Musical Composition, Theory, and History at Princeton University.” In the ensuing century, the orchestra has come to be an almost exclusively student organization; some 90 – 100 undergraduate and graduate musicians representing a broad spectrum of academic departments come together for concerts in Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall. Under the direction of Michael Pratt since 1977, the orchestra has played some of the most ambitious works in the symphonic and operatic repertory, including Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and Symphonies 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, Weber’s Der Freischütz and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in a concert version. The Princeton Orchestra has also taken successful tours of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Spain and Portugal.

In recent years the orchestra has taken an important place in the concert calendar of the state of New Jersey. The Newark Star-Ledger had high praise for the orchestra’s “passionate performance” of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony and called the performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony one “that would make any orchestra proud.” And at a recent tour concert the Glasgow, Scotland Herald noted “the terrific attack, the alert rhythms and dynamics, the fiercely committed, driving performance which they gave…” The Princeton University Orchestra performs some eight to ten concerts a year on campus, in addition to touring. These concerts include both new music and works from the standard repertory. Audience members and critics alike have commented that even the most familiar works take on a new freshness in the enthusiastic, spirited and precise performances given by the Princeton musicians. The Orchestra serves another important role in Princeton’s Music Department by performing and recording new works both of Princeton faculty and graduate composition fellows. In addition, the orchestra has also collaborated with other performing arts groups on campus, producing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the complete incidental music of Mendelssohn, and playing for Prokofiev’s ballet The Steel Step and for Pushkin’s play Boris Godunov in the world premiere production with Prokofiev’s incidental music. Productions with the Princeton University Opera Theater include operas of Mozart, Ravel, Puccini, Beethoven, Weber, Monteverdi, Cavalli and Gilbert & Sullivan.

Participation in the orchestra is voluntary and extracurricular; students commit many hours to rehearsal above and beyond the time required for academic coursework. Graduates of the orchestra have gone on to be performers, music teachers, and arts administrators, but the list of professions also includes lawyers, physicians, business executives, government officials, economists, architects, research scientists, and journalists.

For further information visit the Princeton University Orchestra Website