USD Symphony Orchestra to play Nutcracker selections

A wonderful opportunity awaits Vermillion area residents who attend the free concert of the USD Symphony Orchestra this Friday, Dec. 4, at 7:30 pm in Colton Recital Hall, the Warren M. Lee Center for the Fine Arts.  Dr. Jonathan Alvis, professor of trombone at the University of South Dakota, well give the world premiere of the Music for Trombone and Strings, by Kenneth Klauss. 

Dr. Alvis received a doctor of musical arts degree in trombone performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro before joining the USD faculty this year as director of the marching band and professor of trombone and tuba. A native of Parkston, Kenneth Klauss studied composition with Ernest Toch at the University of Southern California. 

    The concert will also include Beethoven’s dramatic Coriolan Overture, Op. 62.  The composer’s 5th overture, it was written in1807 and vividly portrays the anguished and stormy inner conflicts of the title character.  Coriolanus, a Roman General who was banished by Rome, returns with an army of Rome’s enemies and is prepared to lay the city to ruin.  His mother and wife attempt to dissuade him with their entreaties and are eventually successful, but he is then either killed by his soldiers for betraying them or by his own hand, according to differing legends. 

It is thought to be Beethoven’s assessment of his own mental struggles confronting deafness by some scholars. The concert will also include the Suite for String Orchestra by Czech composer Leos Janáãek.  Finally, to put everyone in a holiday mood, the concert will conclude with selections from the famous Nutcracker Ballet Suite by Tchaikovsky.