KEARNEY – Kearney Symphony Orchestra will open its 117th season tonight by premiering a piece that showcases the talents of several University of Nebraska at Kearney faculty members.
The orchestra, comprised of UNK students, faculty and alumni and other musicians from across the area, will present “Exploring Horizons” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Oct. 11 in UNK’s Fine Arts Recital Hall. The performance features two celebrated orchestral works – Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, commonly known as the “Unfinished Symphony,” and the “Triumphal March” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Aida” – as well as a world premiere from composer Robert Gross.
“Modlin Songs,” the new work by Gross, includes three songs inspired by poems from UNK associate professor and Reynolds Chair of Poetry Brad Modlin. Each poem – “Irises,” “My Cousin Sets Me Up with the Woman She’s Sure Is the One” and “The Neutron Bomb, Afterward” – is about love and anxiety.
“As with many of the poems I like to write and read, these are both light and dark, a little bit embarrassed, a little bit amazed,” Modlin explained.
Using Modlin’s poetry as lyrics, the songs will be performed by UNK faculty soloists Sharon O’Connell Campbell, mezzo-soprano; David Nabb, saxophone; and Nathan Buckner, piano.
Individual tickets for the in-person performance are $13 for adults, $10 for UNK faculty and staff, $5 for youths ages 11-18 and free for children 10 and younger and UNK students with a valid ID. Tickets can be purchased at the UNK Theatre Box Office from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and one hour prior to the performance.
Audience members are invited to a “Pre-Concert Talk” with Gross and the Rev. John Gosswein from 6:30-7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Building, Room 263. The “Pre-Concert Talk” is free and open to all concertgoers.
For those who cannot attend in person, the concert will be livestreamed on the KSO website – unk.edu/kso – where you can also access a digital concert program and listen to “Intermission Interviews” with Gross and Modlin.
