University Symphony Orchestra & Wind Ensemble – Student Ensemble Series
Hamel Music Center/Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
Purchase tickets
$20 general admission
Students free (ticket required)
Featuring Jacob Zehr, tenor
Winner of the 2025 University Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition
Oriol Sans and Scott Teeple, conductors
Program: Britten: Les Illuminations; Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé Suite No.2
Britten’s Les Illuminations and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 explore poetry, desire, and sensuality through drastically different orchestral forces. Jacob Zehr, winner of the 2025 University Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, joins the orchestra as soloist in Britten’s brilliant setting of Arthur Rimbaud, scored for voice and strings, creating an intimate, concentrated world of color and expression.
Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, commissioned for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, expands the palette dramatically, using a vast orchestra to create a luminous, sensuous soundscape inspired by ancient Greece. The suite culminates in the ecstatic Danse générale, a dazzling celebration of reunion and love propelled by infectious rhythms and brilliant orchestral color.