April 4, 2000

Alumni Musical Gala to Take Place at

Middlebury College Center for the Arts on April 15

Event is Free and Open to the Public

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — As part of Middlebury College’s

Bicentennial Celebration, the College’s music department will present

an Alumni Musical Gala at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 15 in the Concert

Hall of the Center for the Arts on Route 30. The event will bring

together alumni from musical and opera stages around the world;

faculty; students; François Clemmons, founder and director of

the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble and Middlebury College Twilight

Artist-in-Residence; and the College Orchestra, conducted by Evan

Bennett. Both the performance and the reception following are free

and open to the public.

The program includes: Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte;”

Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville;” Copland’s “Old American Songs;”

Rachmaninoff’s “Aleko;” Barber’s “Vanessa;” Verdi’s “Ernani;”

Nicolai’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor;” and Wagner’s “Prelude to Die

Meistersinger.”

The gala will feature alumni Stephanie Houtzeel,

mezzo-soprano; Andrew Wentzel, bass-baritone; and Matthew Curran,

bass. Members of the music department Carol Christensen, soprano, and

Beth Thompson Kaiser, soprano, will perform the premiere of

“Nocturne,” a piece written for them by Assistant Professor of Music

Su Lian Tan.

For more information, contact the music department

at 802-443-5221.