Concert to feature concerto/aria winners

The four winners of Wheaton's third annual Concerto-Aria Competition will perform on Thursday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m., during a concert by the Great Woods Chamber Orchestra. Under the direction of Assistant Professor of Music Earl Raney, the students will be featured at Weber Theatre in Watson Fine Arts.

The winners are Sarah Geocaris '11 (soprano), Elizabeth Gadilauskas '12 (cello), Albano Berberi '12 (violin), and Christopher MacDonald '10 (mezzo-soprano). In the fall, they performed in front of a panel of judges composed of two Wheaton professors and one visiting instructor to win their performing roles.

Each year the competition gives students the chance to learn and perform solo literature with orchestra, which they prepare for with music instructors during the fall semester. Both vocalists and instrumentalists are encouraged to audition.

"The Concerto-Aria concert gives students not familiar with the Wheaton Chamber Orchestra a chance to see their classmates star as soloists," says Raney. "While the music performed is classical, the performance is very entertaining and in no way stuffy or pretentious."

The two vocalists, Geocaris and MacDonald, echo Raney's sentiments. "It's rare for students to do something as ambitious as this," says MacDonald, who will perform an aria titled "On Mighty Pens" from Franz Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation.
 
"It's a great opportunity," agrees Geocaris, who will perform two arias; the first, by Luigi Arditi called "Il Bacio", and the second by Giacomo Puccini called "O Mio Babbino Caro" from the opera Gianni Schicchi.

Berberi will perform the third movement of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4. As a freshman, Berberi was thrilled when he found out about the competition back in October, and jumped at the chance to take on such a prestigious solo opportunity. Like the other winners, music has been a part of his life for a long time. He relishes in "the order, the harmony, the technical structure," of music and performance.

Gadilauskas, who will perform Edward Elgar's cello concerto, said she hopes the interest in the competition will inspire students to attend the concert. 

In addition to the student soloists and musicians, the program will feature Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, commonly known as Unfinished. The Jorge Soto Quartet also will perform a suite of Latin American music with the orchestra. Tickets will be available at the door: $10 general admission, $5 seniors, students free, $15 families of four or more.

(Above: Elizabeth Gadilauskas '12, Christopher MacDonald '10; photos by Annie Laurie Malarkey '09)