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Student soloists to be featured tonight with St. Olaf Orchestra

By Le Ann Finger '85
May 13, 2005

The St. Olaf Orchestra, conducted by Steven Amundson, will feature six senior students during this year's annual Senior Soloists Concert: Greg Nelson, cellist; Katie James, piano; Evelyn Johnson and Rachel Traughber, soprano; Paul Morel, bass-baritone; and Matthew Nudell, trombone. The concert, which is free and open to the public, will be performed on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Skoglund Center Auditorium.

"This year's senior soloists were selected by four adjudicators from area colleges and the Minnesota Orchestra," says Amundson. "They have chosen six outstanding performers - a nice mix of singers and instrumentalists who are fine representatives of the class of 2005."

The program includes music the orchestra will perform on the Norway tour. Nelson (St. Paul, Minn.), the first soloist, will perform the first movement of Shostakovich's "Cello Concerto." On piano, James (Rochester, Minn.) is performing the first movement of "Piano Concerto No. 2" by Lowell Liebermann. Johnson (St. Cloud, Minn.) will sing "Marietta's Lied" from "Die Tote Stadt" by Erich Korngold and Morel (Dekalb, Ill.) will sing "Catalogue Aria" from Mozart's opera, "Don Giovanni." Traughber (Eden Prairie, Minn.) is singing "Song to the Moon" from Dvorak's "Rusalka" and Nudell (Hettinger, N.D.) will play the first movement of Launy Grondahl's "Trombone Concerto."

In addition to the solo selections, the orchestra will play Harald Saeverud's "Five Hop Dance" from his "Peer Gynt" and Leonard Bernstein's "Overture to West Side Story." The ensemble also will play "Christine's Lullaby" by St. Olaf senior and student composer Carl Schroeder (Minneapolis, Minn.), a new piece that was composed by Schroeder shortly after the tragedy of September 11, 2001 in memory of the youngest victim that day.

"Carl is a terrific representative of the amazing quality and quantity of activity among our student composers at St. Olaf," says Amundson. "I am pleased to be able to perform this very moving elegy."

The concert will conclude with G. Winston Cassler's arrangement of "The Turtle Dove," the orchestra's signature piece.

Contact Le Ann Finger at 507-786-3416 or finger@stolaf.edu.