Music Under the Dome returns in the 2024-25 season with a tour de force program of incredible music by eclectic composers including Franz Lizst, Willi Maerz, Bernard Andrès, and David Maslanka. Entitled Rhapsodic Recitations, the performance begins with Andrès’ Le Jardin des Paons, a virtuosic work for 2 harps that sparkles, glitters, and shimmers from start to end, performed by Schwob graduate harpists Katie Damon and LeAndra Douds. Next, these fabulous players will perform Marez’s Dirty Elise, a short piece full of humor, written as an homage to Beethoven. Up next is Maslanka’s Recitation Book, V Fanfare/Variations on “Durch Adams Fall,” an athletic piece for saxophone ensemble under the direction of Schwob faculty saxophone professor, Dr. Joe Girard. Concluding the program will be Liszt’s fiendishly difficult, but musically powerful Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12, performed by Tiffany Poon, a student from the studio of Dr. Esther Park, the L. Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano.

Reception at 5 pm with wine and cheese, and a 45-minute concert at 5:37 pm!

Our next performance, entitled Beautiful Brass, features music from the brass studios of the Schwob School of Music. First up is go to the garden by Eris Dejarnett, a work for trumpet and electronics/poetry featuring Schwob faculty trumpet professor Dr. Aaron Jensen. After this inventive piece, the internationally recognized Schwob Trombone Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Bradley Palmer, will perform a beautiful arrangement of Francis Poulenc’s Four Short Prayers of St. Francis of Assisi, a lovely work that is both prayerful and powerful. The next work features the Schwob Horn Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Anne-Marie Cherry in an elegant arrangement of Bjork’s Dancer in the Dark. Right after, the Legacy Brass Faculty Quintet will offer two terrific pieces, this first by Cait Nishimura entitled Valley Views, and the next, a tour de force from Kevin McKee called Iron Horse: The Blue Goose. This should be a spectacular concert offered by the best of our brass at the SSoM!

Reception at 5 pm with wine and cheese, and a 45-minute concert at 5:37 pm!