By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The Fort Hays State University Department of Music and Theatre is wrapping up its year with a series of concerts.
Kicking off the events this week was the New Music Festival, which began Friday and will conclude Saturday with an “evening of the music of Katherine Bergman,” according to an FHSU announcement.
“Bergman is a Minnesota-based composer who draws on environmentalism and literature to create music described as hypnotic and visceral,” the announcement said. “She has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles throughout the United States and abroad.”
The New Music Festival concert is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.
Her performance will feature the world premiere of “An Absence of Silence” for violin, cello, piano and bass clarinet, commissioned by the FHSU New Music Ensemble, comprised of FHSU instructors that “share a passion for the music of living composers.”
At 2:30 p.m. Sunday, FHSU senior Kathryn Walters will perform her senior vocal performance in Palmer Hall.
FHSU choirs will next take the stage for the annual Choirs Concert at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.
“We call it our Masterworks Concert and start off with the Fort Hays Singers doing a folksy eight-movement piece called Southern Grace,” said FHSU director of choral activities, Terry Crull.
The Smoky Hill Choral will follow with Schubert's famous Mass in G, he said.
“And then the Concert Choir is going to finish with one of my favorite works, 'Frostiana,' the poetry of Robert Frost, set by Randall Thompson, one of my favorite composers,” Crull said.
He said the concert will run less than 90 minutes and is a “nice concert, great way to end the year.”
The FHSU Bands Concert will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday under the direction of Peter Lillpopp, director of bands, in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.
And wrapping up the week the calendar is the Junior Music Recital of Jackson Scott and Julia Long in Palmer Hall at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
For the full FHSU Department of Music and Theatre calendar, visit the FHSU website.