UW Symphony Orchestra to Present ‘Sibelius’ 3rd’ Nov. 16

A set of Eastern European folk dances, a Brazilian piano concerto and a Finnish symphony -- can variety be a unifying theme for a concert? Audience members will discover the answer at the University of Wyoming’s Symphony Orchestra (UWSO) concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall.

Tickets are $14 for the public, $10 for senior citizens and $4 for students. A nominal processing fee will be charged for each ticket. To purchase tickets, visit the Performing Arts box office, call (307) 766-6666 or go online at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/uwyo/6984.

The concert opens with Zoltan Kodály’s “Dances of Galánta,” Extraordinarily popular, the piece is among many compositions either in the style of or actually quoting traditional folk-dance tunes. Brahms’ “Hungarian Dances”; Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances”; Janacek’s “Moravian Dances”; Akpabot’s “Three Nigerian Dances”; and Grieg’s “Norwegian Dances” are all examples.

“Kodály’s ‘Dances of Galánta’ is among the most performed for reasons that will be obvious when you hear the music: It is poignant at times, proud and, in the fast portions, wonderfully exciting,” says Michael Griffith, UW director of orchestral activities. Galánta is a town in Slovakia, just east of Bratislava, the Slovak capital. “These dances will take the place of an overture and work well there,” Griffith says. “Then comes a piano concerto. What could be more traditional than a piano concerto after the overture? But there tradition ends.”

The concerto is by M. Camargo Guarnieri, an important Brazilian musician and director of the São Paulo Conservatory. While the piece has no direct folk or popular music in it, the audience will hear the same rhythmic impulses that lead to samba and an ineffable melodic suggestion of the tropics.

“Combine that with a highly sophisticated harmonic structure, and you have a wonderful, unusual piece,” Griffith says.

After intermission, the concert will be filled by Symphony No. 3 by Jean Sibelius. Many concert lovers know Sibelius from his “Finlandia,” which the UW orchestra performed last season. Symphony No. 3 is less well known but, in Griffith’s opinion, is an incredible symphony.

Some melodies are vaguely folk-like, there is a spiritual quality to many moments, and it all exudes Sibelius’ darker Finnish personality, he adds.

“Commentators say that it could only have been written in a land where it is dark all day in winter and sunny all day in summer,” Griffith says. “True or not, you certainly hear the extremes of mood in the piece. The UWSO is very excited to bring it to Laramie.”

The concert will feature the return of Carlos Costa to UW as a piano soloist. Originally from São José dos Campos, Brazil, Costa currently is a professor of conducting, piano and group piano professor at the Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG). He has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Unicamp (Brazil); a bachelor’s degree in piano from the University of Alabama-Huntsville; a master’s degree in piano from Ohio State University; and a master’s degree in conducting and a doctorate in piano, both from the University of Georgia.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Costa has performed in Portugal, Italy, the United States and in several Brazilian states. He conducted the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra, the Goiânia Symphony Orchestra, the UWSO and others. He founded the UFG Jean Douliez Academic Orchestra in 2006.

Among his most recent performances are the solo piano recital at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre); played the Mozart piano concerto accompanied by the Mozart Italy/Goiás Association Orchestra in Pirenópolis, Goiás; and presented a recital with tenor Adriano Pinheiro with Brazilian repertoire at the International Musicology Symposium in Goiás.

Costa coordinated the music graduate program of UFG from 2014-17, when he also was the president of three editions of the National Music Research Seminar.

For more information, email Griffith at symph@uwyo.edu.