University of Hawaii Symphony and Choirs 'Premiere' Mozart Requiem

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The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Orchestra and Choirs are preparing for a rare premiere of a major work by Mozart. The catch? It’s Mozart’s 1791 Requiem that was left incomplete at his death. Most performers through history have used the completion by Mozart student Franz Xaver Süssmayr: a sort of ‘standard’ edition. While some curious to explore the incomplete Requiem have turned to Robert D. Levin’s more recent completion from the early 1990s, few in the United States have heard the adventurous and robust 1984 completion by British composer, string player, and musicologist Duncan Druce. Completed in the style of the mature, late Mozart, Druce expands many of the movements Süssmayr completed more abruptly.

Rounding out the program is the local premiere of Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s overture Machine and the first movement of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto number five in E-flat. The concerto will be played by UH graduate student Xin Lin, a native of the Fujian Province in China. Lin is a winner of the University’s annual Concerto Competition.

The performance is dedicated to retired, emeritus UH professor, Dr. Robert S. Hines, who passed on April 10, 2014, a nationally respected musician, educator, author, and composer/arranger. He arrived in Hawai‘i in 1972 to serve as UHM’s Director of Choral Activities. By 1994 when he retired, however, he had risen to Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities, a position he held for ten years.

Professors Jeffrey Boeckman and Miguel Ángel Felipe will share the podium. Faculty soloists will be featured in the Requiem: Rachel Schutz, soprano; Maya Hoover, mezzo-soprano; Larry Paxton, tenor; and John Mount, bass.

Ticket Information
$15 General, $10 Student/Senior, 800-745-3000 or ticketmaster.com

Event Sponsor
Arts and Humanities, Music, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Miguel Felipe, (808) 956-7756, mfelipe@hawaii.edu, http://www.hawaii.edu/uhmmusic

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