UT Dallas’ student ensemble Musica Nova will present “Four Centuries of French Music” to open this spring’s student arts festival.
At 8 p.m. Saturday in the Jonsson Performance Hall, the free concert will celebrate the canon of French classical music including favorites such as Fauré’s “Pavane,” Ravel’s “Pavane for a Dead Princess” and works by Lully, Loeillet and Dukas.
The centerpiece of the concert will be the monumental Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet by Ernest Chausson.
Students from the University’s Advanced Orchestra/Chamber Music Ensemble will perform with UT Dallas faculty pianist Michael McVay under the direction of composer-conductor Dr. Robert Xavier Rodríguez, professor of music and Chair in Art and Aesthetic Studies.
“This will be the most ambitious program in all of Musica Nova’s 40-year history.”
Dr. Robert Xavier Rodríguez, professor of music and Chair in Art and Aesthetic Studies at UT Dallas
“This will be the most ambitious program in all of Musica Nova’s 40-year history,” Rodriguez said. “The music is sublime, and the students have worked overtime to produce something wonderful. Our Musica Nova concerts often sell out, so I urge everyone to arrive right at 7:30, when the doors open.”
UT Dallas’ Musica Nova ensemble performs music written for large and small ensembles, plus multimedia and theater works of all periods. Musica Nova guest artists have included members of the Dallas Symphony and Dallas Opera Orchestra, and singers from the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera.
Music from past Musica Nova concerts has ranged from medieval and Renaissance dances and motets to standard repertoire to experimental mixed-media works written for or developed by the ensemble.
Concerts have included an evening of tangos, improvisation, French cabaret and mariachi songs, chamber opera, video art and ballet.
