MSUM concert features Arsenal Trio
The annual Orchestra and Choir Concert will be at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 5 at First Presbyterian Church, 650 2nd Ave. N., Fargo.
The concert features The Arsenal Trio, comprised of Ben Sung, concertmaster of the FM Symphony and violin professor at MSUM and NDSU; Sung’s wife, pianist Jihye Chang, who teaches piano at Concordia College; and colleague, cellist Hrant Parsamian of New York. The University Symphony Orchestra, led by MSUM’s Kirk Moss, will accompany the trio.
The program features Triple Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven.
“It’s beautiful,” Sung said. “It’s a big piece, but in the same way that any Beethoven concerto is big. It’s one of his best-known, middle-period works, right in the middle of a collection of compositions that are usually regarded as the first large-scale masterpieces of the Romantic era in music.”
The program also includes Haydn’s Te Deum, a celebratory work for orchestra and chorus representing the composer “at his cheeriest,” says Moss, who will lead the orchestra and MSUM’s three choirs when they perform together. “The sheer force of the 200 combined musicians is exhilarating.”
MSUM’s Rod Rothlisberger, Michael Siggerud and Jenny Dufault will lead the individual choirs on several chorus-only selections, including Rachmaninoff’s Ave Maria, sung in Russian; a composition for three choirs by Franz Biebl; and other works for choir and organ, all suited to the holiday season.
For tickets, $5 adults and $2 students and seniors, call the MSUM Box Office at (218) 477-2271 Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets will also be available at the door.