Tucson's classical music season is winding down this weekend with several events, from Arizona Repertory Singers' celebration of American voices, to the final concert from a Tucson conductor who has been a fixture at the University of Arizona since the dawn of the 21st century.
The Civic Orchestra of Tucson, meanwhile, will conclude its 50th anniversary season with a concert that turns back the clock to that first season.
Ending on a high note: Cockrell's final concert
Thomas Cockrell joined the U of A School of Music as the Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair in Music in 2000, leading orchestral activities and serving as music director of the UA Opera Theater.
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On Saturday, April 25, he will perform his final concert with the Arizona Symphony Orchestra before he officially retires at the end of May.
Thomas Cockrell will conduct his final Arizona Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday, closing out a 26-year career at the University of Arizona School of Music.
Saturday's concert will feature works by Verdi, Brahms, Copland and Riddle, the legendary composer and arranger whose vast collection of scores and arrangements is archived at the UA as part of the endowment established in 1998 by the estate of Riddle's widow, Naomi.
Thomas Cockrell
Tucson native Linda Ronstadt recorded a trilogy of albums of pop standards arranged by Riddle in the early 1980s.
The endowment also established the Nelson Riddle Library and the Naomi Riddle Fund for the Advancement of the School.
Saturday's concert, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at Crowder Hall, 1017 N. Olive Road at the UA School of Music, will include a performance of Richard Strauss's "Four Lost Songs" with Metropolitan Opera soprano Latonia Moore.
Faculty and guest artists will be part of the celebration that includes Arizona Symphony alumni from throughout Cockrell's 26-year tenure.
Tickets are $11 through music.arizona.edu.
Arizona Repertory Singers celebrate America's 250th
Arizona Repertory Singers will add its nearly 50 voices to America's big ole 250th birthday bash with a musical declaration of its own.
On Sunday, April 26, Music Director Ryan Phillips will lead the ensemble in a concert of songs that celebrate America but also tell its story through traditional and contemporary spirituals, love songs and toe-tapping pop standards.
Arizona Repertory Singers Music Director Ryan Phillips leads the ensemble in a concert celebrating America for its 250th anniversary.
"American Voices" opens with America's quintessential music form — spirituals: the liberating “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel”; William Dawson’s “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit”; and Moses Hogan’s anthem “I’m Gonna Sing ‘Til the Spirit Moves in My Heart.”
Arizona Repertory Singers will perform works by American composers including Paul Simon, Harold Arlen and Aaron Copland at its concert on Sunday.
The ensemble will delve into American perspectives and aspirations in the 20th century with a jazzed version of Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow,” reconfigured by Russ Robinson; Rene Clausen’s modern take on the familiar Shaker standard “Simple Gifts”; and Aaron Copland's call for community in “Zion’s Walls."
The concert comes full circle to American pop with Kirby Shaw's choral arrangements for Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Billy Joel's “And So It Goes"; and Jon Clements' arrangement of Ben Folds' ballad “The Luckiest” for eight parts.
The singers also will perform Eric Whitacre’s “A Boy and a Girl,” “O Love” by Elaine Hagenberg, and Shawn Kirchner’s modern arrangement J.K. Alwood's “Unclouded Day.”
Phillips will accompany the ensemble on hammered dulcimer on Malcom Daglish's uplifting “Reel à Bouche.”
Sunday's concert begins at 4 p.m. at Oro Valley's St. Mark Catholic Church, 2727 W. Tangerine Road. Tickets are $22 in advance at arsingers.org, free for students with ID. It's $25 at the door.
Civic Orchestra goes back in time
The Civic Orchestra of Tucson is going back to 1976 in its 50th anniversary season finale this weekend.
The ensemble's “Memories of Concerts Past” will feature some works that were on its inaugural season program, including Edvard Grieg’s "Peer Gynt" Suite and the first movement of William Grant Still’s seminal Afro-American Symphony — the first symphony by an African American composer to be performed by a major American orchestra.
With the old, the orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Keun Oh, mixes in some more contemporary light fare from Hollywood and Broadway — "How to Train Your Dragon," "Phantom of the Opera," "Libertango" and "Cats."
The Civic Orchestra of Tucson was formed in 1975 with a handful of players and performed its inaugural season the following year. Today, the orchestra has 70 members and has made it a mission to provide performance opportunities for adults and innovative music-education programs for kids, including its annual Young Artist Competition.
This year, the orchestra invited YAC winners to perform with the orchestra, including at its concert Sunday, April 26, at Catalina Foothills High School. Pianist Ben Teller, who won the senior piano division, will perform the first movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto No. 1.
Teller, who graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School last May, is a piano performance and mathematics dual major at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
Pianist Ben Teller will perform with the Civic Orchestra of Tucson on Sunday.
The orchestra will perform the concert three times:
- 3 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Green Valley Recreation West Center Auditorium, 1111 S. GVR Drive; $15 in advance at cotmusic.org or at the door.
- 3 p.m. Sunday at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive; free admission.
- 7 p.m. May 3 at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center at Reid Park, 900 S. Randolph Way; free.
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Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Bluesky @Starburch
Cathalena E. Burch
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