Kick off the holidays with an Ohio State School of Music tradition: the “Celebration Concert” at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 in Mershon Auditorium.
This concert incorporates all divisions of the School of Music and features most of its major ensembles, orchestras, small groups and soloists.
“Instead of one group playing or singing between eight and 10 pieces, you have eight or 10 distinct groups each doing something different,” said Hilary Apfelstadt, associate director of the School of Music. “We might start off with collegiate winds, for example, and then change to the string quartet. After that would be the symphonic band, and then there would maybe be a choir.”
This is the tradition’s 17th year, held consistently on the last Friday of Winter Quarter. The groups rehearse separately throughout the quarter and meet for the dress rehearsal the day before the concert.
“It’s a showcase of all sorts of different styles played and sung by a whole lot of talented students,” Apfelstadt said. “It’s the one event of the year when virtually every student in the School of Music is participating on the same stage.”
There are 12 pieces in the first half, which lasts about 35 minutes. The second half has 10 pieces and lasts for about 30 minutes. Each group performs once, and sets typically last between three and five minutes.
The concert differs from previous years because it includes a clarinet quartet and a flute soloist. The musical selections are different, too, except for the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, which closes the concert each year. “Hallelujah Chorus” will feature combined choruses and the Symphony Orchestra, according to a School of Music press release.
More than 300 student musicians and singers, performing in 16 ensembles, will perform in the symphony orchestra, the jazz ensemble, men’s and women’s glee club and cello ensemble.
“It’s become a real crowd pleaser because there’s so much variety in it that there is something that everyone likes. If you’re a jazz fan, you are going to hear jazz groups, but you’re also going to hear some choirs,” Apfelstadt said. “It brings together all of the people who like instrumental music with the people who like vocal music, with the people who like jazz. Everybody comes to that concert because there is going to be something just for them.”
Tickets are available at Mershon Auditorium in Mershon Hall prior to showtime, and people tend to line up about an hour before the concert.
Tickets can also be purchased in advance at the Wexner Ticket Office or at the OSU Theatre Box Office. They are $14 for the general public, $12 for OSU faculty and staff, and $8 for students with a BuckID.
