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Philharmonia to present fall concert Sunday, Nov. 19

mjc
November 15, 2000

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? The 75-member St. Olaf Philharmonia, directed by St. Olaf College music faculty member Jo Ann Polley, will present a concert Sunday, Nov. 19, at the college. The concert will feature music faculty member Alison Feldt in "Mrs. Ford?s Aria and Recitative" from The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai.

The concert, at 4:30 p.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public.

Other music to be presented at the concert includes the "Overture" to The Merry Wives of Windsor by Nicolai; "The St. Paul Suite for String Orchestra" by Gustav Holst; selections from Mozart?s Symphony 35 in D Major, K. 385; selections from Lyric Suite for Orchestra, Opus 54 by Edvard Grieg; "Romance from Suite for Orchestra, Opus 39" by Antonin Dvorak; and "Overture to Light Cavalry" by Franz von Suppe. "Phanfares" for brass and percussion will be premiered and conducted by senior music education student James Patrick Miller of Winona, Minn.

The Philharmonia performs music from all periods including repertoire for string orchestra, chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra. It rehearses twice weekly, and membership consists of first-year through senior students. Virtually every academic major offered on campus is pursued by one of more students in the Philharmonia.

The concert season consists of a Vespers Service with the Chapel Choir in October, a fall concert, a spring chapel service, and a spring concert with a weekend tour. In February 1998 the ensemble accepted an invitation to perform at the Minnesota Music Educator?s Association Mid-Winter clinic in Minneapolis.

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Conductor Jo Ann Polley earned a B.A. in instrumental music education from St. Olaf, an M.M. in clarinet performance from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D in performance/music theory/music literature from Michigan State University. In addition to her formal conducting training, she has participated in numerous conducting symposia throughout the region. Polley performs frequently in solo and chamber music recitals on clarinet and bass clarinet, and is in demand as a clinician.

She is a founder and member of WindWorks, a professional woodwind quintet. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with many professional orchestras in the area. Currently she is North Central Chair of the International Clarinet Association. At St. Olaf she teaches clarinet and chamber music in addition to conducting the St. Olaf Philharmonia.

Alison Feldt, a graduate of Luther College, holds a master?s degree from the University of Iowa and a doctor of musical arts degree in vocal performance and pedagogy from the University of Minnesota. She is an associate professor of music at St. Olaf, where she teaches applied voice, voice pedagogy and vocal literature.

Dr. Feldt has received numerous national and international singing awards, including first place in the Minnesota district National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award competition, the Minnesota-Western Wisconsin Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the Opera/Lied Award from the City of Salzburg Cultural Foundation, and the Nico Dostal and Robert Stolz Foundations Operetta Award.

She has performed locally at the Landmark Center, Volksfest Kulturhaus, the Plymouth Congregational Church, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and as guest soloist with the Metropolitan Symphony and the St. Paul Civic Symphony. At St. Olaf she has performed with the St. Olaf Orchestra, the St. Olaf Philharmonia, the Cantorei and the Chapel Choir.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty of approximately 256. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in number of students who study abroad.

Contact Michael Cooper at 507-786-3315 or cooperm@stolaf.edu.