NEC Update Vol.1, No.5, November 1, 2004
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Vol. 1, No. 5, November 1,
2004
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Welcome
to your free subscription to NEC Update, coming to you every two weeks with concert highlights and other news from New England Conservatory. Scroll to
the bottom to send us a message if you wish to end your free subscription.
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NEC announces opera
season |
New England Conservatory Opera Theater will present two fully staged opera productions and a musical comedy evening
featuring hits by Noel Coward during 2004-2005. Benjamin Britten's "The Turn of the Screw" gets the season off to an early start (December 10-12).
This eerie tale of haunted children and their desperate governess is based on the classic Henry James novella, which has also inspired numerous Hollywood
versions, including "The Innocents" (Deborah Kerr as the governess) and "The Others" (Nicole Kidman). Later in the season, NEC offers another nocturnal
children's tale, Massenet's "Cendrillon" (Cinderella, March 11-13), which will be performed in the original French with English supertitles. New this
year: an evening-long song revue in Jordan Hall, "A Talent to Amuse: An Evening with Noel Coward" (April 12), created by NEC's director of opera studies,
John Greer.
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more about "The Turn of the Screw." |
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Voices and faces from
Homecoming |
New England Conservatory's 2004 homecoming, October 22-24, was "A Celebration of Song." This was a weekend for NEC
alumni and friends who are singers--or who simply love vocal music--to revisit NEC and one another through masterclasses, panel discussions, vocal
concerts, and social activities. Long-time NEC voice faculty member Helen Hodam was reunited with former students who sang and otherwise paid her tribute,
including Metropolitan Opera singer Denyce Graves (in photo).
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Missed
homecoming? Here's snapshots, video, audio. |
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NEC orchestra at Symphony
Hall |
The NEC Philharmonia, NEC's premier student orchestra, will help inaugurate Symphony Hall's renovated organ with a
performance of a Guilmant work for organ and orchestra, under the baton of Boston Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Jens Georg Bachmann. The November
7 concert is part of Symphony Hall's day-long open house, which draws on the talent of NEC alumni and student chamber ensembles for other performances
throughout the day.
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more about NEC's participation in the BSO open house. |
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Flying in for Chadwick
festivities |
On November 15, international scholars and music lovers will converge on NEC as home base for festivities surrounding
the 150th birthday of composer George Whitefield Chadwick. The greater portion of Chadwick's life, from 1897 to 1930, was spent as director of New
England Conservatory. Following a panel on the composer, a Jordan Hall concert will include his music for orchestra and string quartet, as well as
scenes from the "lost" opera "The Padrone," which received its world stage premiere at NEC in 1997 (in photo). Lowell, the city of Chadwick's birth,
will also offer Chadwick activities in November.
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| Explore
NEC's concerts and programs day by day. |
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A visit from our newest
board |
More than 40 members of NEC's Board of Visitors convened at Jordan Hall on October 22 for their second annual meeting--double
the number who attended last year. Members in this vital group now total 92 and come from as far away as London and California (in photo, Hollywood
film composer/arranger Conrad Pope '73). Highlights of the meeting included a workshop, "Mastering the Art of Music: The Conservatory in the 21st Century," with
contributions from faculty, students, and Board member Dr. Eve Slater (in photo), who is former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health and parent of a
current NEC/Tufts double-degree undergraduate. This visit from Board members--who are leaders from the worlds of business, politics, education, and
the arts--helps them serve as advocates and ambassadors of NEC's mission.
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| View
the complete roster of NEC's Board of Visitors. |
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| Live from NEC: 19
voices strong |
This month's streaming audio clip comes from the conclusion of NEC's homecoming weekend, "A Celebration of Song." Ralph
Vaughan Williams's "Serenade to Music," the grand finale of the Helen Hodam tribute concert held in NEC's Jordan Hall, was an opportunity to hear some
of NEC's most talented vocal students display their individual voices. This unusual work, originally written for and tailored to the composer's friends,
is both a choral work and a series of solos featuring 16 members of the 19-singer choir.
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| Listen
to "Live from NEC." |
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Escape the ordinary when you come to NEC to hear our faculty, guests, and the best young pre-professionals
perform live. And bring a friend to escape with you for the same ticket price: Free!
New England Conservatory is located at 290 Huntington Avenue (at the corner of Gainsborough Street), Boston--a block from Symphony Hall.
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