Annual Spring Concert in Millennium Park Features School of Music Students

For the third year in a row, the annual spring concert featured performances by outstanding musicians from the School of Music. This year’s concert, titled “A Cello, Saxophone, and Brass Spectacular,” attracted an estimated 8,000 people to Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion on May 25.

Like the 2006 Monster Piano and the 2007 Monster Percussion Concerts, this year’s program featured an interesting collaboration of instruments. An ensemble of 48 cellos, a 40-piece orchestra of all saxophones, and a huge brass ensemble played classic music with a slightly different spin.

The opening prelude, Fanfare for the Common Man, was performed by the student brass ensemble. Later in the program, the almost 50-cello rendition of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings stirred the audience, and then an orchestra of saxophones, with piano soloist, belted out Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue.

Distinguished faculty conductors from the School of Music, including Hans Jørgen Jensen, Victor Yampolsky, Gail Williams, and Mallory Thompson, were a part of the evening’s program.

page 1 of 1