Gordon in the News: last updated 10/20/2006
MEDIA CONTACT: Cyndi McMahon
Office of College Communications
978.867.4236
WENHAM, MA-The Gordon Symphony Orchestra will perform on Friday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel at Gordon College. The program will include Vaughan William's 5th Symphony and The Lark Ascending; Dvorak's Cello Concerto, Op. 104; and the aria Il Mio Tesoro from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. This special performance of the Gordon Symphony Orchestra will feature Carol Ou on cello and student soloists Wesley Lawrence and Sarah Palmer.
Admission is $11 for adults and $8 for seniors and children under 12. Tickets can be purchased on-line by visiting the Gordon College web site at www.gordon.edu or by calling the Gordon College ticket line at 978.867.3400. A limited quantity of tickets will be available at the door one hour before the performance.
The Gordon Symphony Orchestra is comprised of students, faculty and friends of Gordon College. Currently under the dynamic leadership of Grammy-nominated conductor James Buswell and assisted by Carol Ou, the group was created in 1992 by the late James Jorgenson, whose skill as an educator and musician provided the foundation and vision for this unique musical ensemble.
Carol Ou is the Director of Chamber Music at Gordon College. She serves on the faculty at the New England Conservatory and is the recipient of the 1998 Outstanding Young Woman of America Award. Ou was top prize winner at the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Competition and the Irving M. Klein International String Competition. She has won praise throughout the United States, Canada and Asia with her "astounding tone and pitch" and her "wonderfully pure cello tone and incisive technique," according to The Strad magazine.
Featured soloist Wesley Lawrence is currently completing his final year at Gordon College and will finish with a Bachelor of Music in Performance. He has performed as a soloist with the Gordon College Choir in concerts across the United States and recently performed in Europe. This past November he performed the tenor solos in Mozart's Missa Brevis with the Symphonic Chorale, and in January sang the role of Leandre in The Doctor in Spite of Himself by Charles Gounod. In the Music Department's Opera Scenes he has sung many roles including Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, Jaquino in Fidelio, the title role in Albert Herring, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Walther in Die Meistersinger, and Rodolfo in La Bohéme. In February 2005 he sang the role of Ahab in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah. In Opera Scenes in March of this year, he will sing Lysander in Britten's A Midsummer Nights Dream and Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. In April he will have another opportunity to perform with the Gordon Symphony Orchestra when he sings Uriel for Franz Joseph Haydn's The Creation.
Sarah Palmer, a native of California, began playing violin at the age of 13. She also studied piano for many years, beginning as a young child and continuing through high school. Sarah has won numerous scholarships and awards for her accomplishments both as a violinist and as a pianist. She has been a member of many different symphony orchestras, a three-time winner of the Music in the Mountains Young Musicians' Competition, and a featured soloist in the Music in the Mountains Fall Festival concert series. Sarah was home schooled from kindergarten through high school. As a college freshman she attended Biola University in California, where she participated in the Torrey Honors Institute, furthering her love of literature, philosophy, and theology. She spent her sophomore year studying music at Wheaton College in Illinois. Sarah now attends Gordon College, where she is a student of James Buswell; she will be graduating in May. She was previously featured as a soloist with the Gordon College Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2005.
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Gordon College is a Christian college of the liberal arts and sciences on Boston's North Shore. The college offers majors in 36 fields and has graduate programs in education and music education. Leading the way in Christian college merit, Gordon is nationally ranked for its excellence in academics and its role in character building. These achievements recognize Gordon as one of the nation's top Christian colleges.
