As trumpets blare and cymbals crash, the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra will end another year of performances with its Season Finale on Saturday, May 30. The event, held every year during Senior Week as a way of sending off the graduating class, will include an eclectic variety of works from Johannes Brahms to John Williams and will feature the winners of this year’s concerto and aria competition.
“This concert is a last thing to offer the community, and when I say ‘community’ I mean the greater Gustavus community: students, alumni and people from St. Peter,” said Director of Fine Arts Al Behrends. “Most students are away from campus at the time—only the seniors are left—so the audience is mostly the extended part of the Gustavus community.”
“We wanted to select pieces that kind of have the feeling of looking forward and making new decisions,” said Warren Friesen, conductor of the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra.
Most of these pieces are classical in nature, but all have been specially chosen to send a particular message to this year’s graduating class.
“Brahms wrote one of these pieces upon receiving an honorary doctorate in music, and it was actually a bit of a scandal when he performed it,” said Friesen. “It incorporates tunes from four popular drinking songs from the time, so it’s sort of Brahms’ way of mocking academia and what it stands for. Of course, because it’s Brahms, it’s nevertheless a work of genius.”
Also on the program is a performance of John Williams’ “Theme from Superman,” and Aaron Copland’s “Prayer of Living.”
The two winners of this year’s concerto and aria competition, Junior English Major Azra Halilovic and Junior Biology Major Tom Oelfke, will be performing with the orchestra. Oelfke will be playing a Gordon Jacob piece for trombone, and Halilovic will be playing a Johann Sebastian Bach Concerto on the piano.
One unique aspect of this year’s program is that the Gustavus Choir will be joining the orchestra on three pieces. The combined performances include a musical arrangement of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.”
This year’s performance is also a sad one for the many students who have played under the guidance of Conductor Friesen’s baton, as this is Friesen’s last year at Gustavus and his last time directing the Symphony Orchestra.
“That makes it a sentimental thing,” said Behrends. “It will be a bittersweet concert. … It’s the last of 180 events this year, so it’s an end of the year celebration, but it will be sad to see this era of Symphony Orchestra end.”
“He’s really grown the program since he came here,” said Senior Honors Communication Studies and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies Major Katie Mason. “He’s the reason a lot of students came here to Gustavus. … There will be a void there next year.”
Although this year’s Season Finale is a bittersweet affair for those at Gustavus who have grown to love and respect Friesen, those who attend will certainly enjoy a beautiful sendoff for Warren Friesen and the Class of 2009.
“It’s amazing that each year we get to this point. … It’s an absolute dead heat from the first day to the end of the year, and then you get ready to do it all over again in the fall,” said Behrends.
The Gustavus Symphony Orchestra Season Finale will be on Saturday, May 30 at 8:00 p.m. in Christ Chapel.