Date: Nov 14, 2011

The Healing Power of Music

Hofstra Symphony Orchestra and LI's CCAN Partner on Fall Concert

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY …  The Hofstra Symphony Orchestra, directed by Professor David Ramael, is teaming up with the Long Island Coalition Against Child Abuse and Neglect (CCAN) to present a concert that is both a celebration of children and the healing power of music.

The concert will be presented on Sunday, December 4, 2011, at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse, Hofstra University, South Campus. The program will include a 2:15 p.m. pre concert lecture by Professor Ramael and Anthony Zenkus, director of education at CCAN. The 3 p.m. concert will include two famous child-themed compositions, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Gustav Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Tickets are $10, $8 for senior citizens and matriculated non-Hofstra students. Members of the Hofstra community may receive one free ticket upon presentation of a current HofstraCard. For tickets and more information call the Hofstra Box Office at 516-463-6644.

Professor Ramael says that this performance is part of a continued effort to present music with social themes, and the concert is just one way that the Hofstra Symphony Orchestra is working with CCAN. This spring 2012, Hofstra student musicians will work with and mentor students receiving services from CCAN.

About the Hofstra Symphony Orchestra - The Symphony Orchestra is one of Hofstra’s major music ensembles, comprising undergraduate and graduate level majors and non-majors. The orchestra includes the full complement of strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion needed to present a variety of repertoire dating from the Baroque era to the twenty-first century. 

About CCAN - Since its founding in 1979, CCAN has been a center for child abuse prevention and child victim advocacy. As a voice for all children on Long Island, CCAN advocates for enhanced prevention, intervention and treatment services and policies for abused and neglected children. In an effort to fill in service gaps, CCAN provides direct services to assist child victims and their families recover from their traumatic experiences. CCAN is a leading provider of professional and community training on child abuse recognition, response and prevention.

About the works that will be performed …

Since it was composed in 1936, Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is credited with introducing generations of children to classical music. It tells the story of a mischievous boy named Peter who is able to outsmart a wolf with the assistance of his cat, a bird and a duck. Each character in the story is represented by a different instrument:  Peter – string Instruments; the bird – flute; the duck – oboe; cat – clarinet; the wolf – French Horn; Peter’s grandfather – bassoon; and the hunters – woodwind instruments. Bob Spiotto, executive producer of Hofstra Entertainment, will narrate this performance of Peter and the Wolf.

Des Knaben Wunderhorn or “The Youth’s Magic Horn” is the title of a series of 19th century German folk poetry with themes ranging from love and heartbreak to childhood fantasy to military life and war. Gustav Mahler set many of these verses, which were dear to him, to music. Mahler spoke of the Wunderhorn poems as being “essentially different from all kinds of ‘literary' poetry, being more nature and life—that is, the sources of all poetry—than art.” The German music critic Karl Schumann observed that Mahler was attracted to these poems not by “the literary claims of the text, but by the abundance of music latent in the words.” Hofstra Music Professors Tammy Hensrud, mezzo-soprano, and Gregory Mercer, tenor, are the soloists in this performance of Des Knaben Wunderhorn .

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution of higher education where more than 12,000 full and part-time students choose from undergraduate and graduate offerings in liberal arts and sciences, business, engineering, communication, education, health and human services, honors studies, a School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. The Hofstra community is driven, dynamic and energetic, helping students find and focus their strengths to prepare them for a successful future. Located in Nassau County, New York, on over 240 acres, the University is less than an hour from midtown Manhattan.

###

Related Link: More About the Department of Music