Free Concert Sunday at Rider to Feature Italian Music

Editor's Note: The following is a news release issued by Westminster Choir College of Rider University.

Westminster Conservatory’s Kaleidoscope Chamber Series will present the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Ruth Ochs, conductor, in a program entitled “Viva Italia” Sunday, Feb. 5, at 2:30 p.m. in Gill Memorial Chapel on the Rider University campus in Lawrence Township. 

The program represents four centuries of music from Italy and includes music by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Boccherini, Rossini, and Respighi.  Admission is free.

The program includes Gioachino Rossini's Overture to Il Signor Bruschino; Antonio Vivaldi's Violin Concerto no. 4 in F Minor, "Winter;" Luigi Boccherini's Symphony in A major, op. 37, no. 4; Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1 by Ottorino Respighi; and "Pur ti miro," a duet from L'incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi.

Ileana Ciumac, a faculty member of Westminster Conservatory and concertmaster of the Westminster Community Orchestra, will be the violin soloist.  Sopranos Danielle Sinclair and Tracey Chebra are also featured in an operatic duet

Conductor Ruth Ochs earned a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from the University of Texas and a Bachelor of Arts in music from Harvard University.  She also studied several summers at the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine, and she was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany.  She is currently a candidate for a doctorate in musicology at Princeton University.  In Texas she conducted the University of Texas String Project and the Austin Philharmonic.  In addition to conducting the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Ms. Ochs conducts the Westminster Community Orchestra and the Princeton University Sinfonia.

In her native Romania violinist Ileana Ciumac was a solo and ensemble performer with the Symphonic Orchestra and Opera Symphonic Orchestra in Timisoara.  She performed elsewhere in Romania as well as in Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the United States.  Ms. Ciumac holds degrees in violin performance and pedagogy from Cluj-Napoca Conservatory.  She is a member of many local orchestras and concertmaster of the Westminster Community Orchestra.

Danielle Sinclair has performed with orchestras throughout the country in works ranging from Bach's Magnificat and St. John Passion to Respighi's Lauda per la Natività del Signore and Orff's Carmina Burana.  She has appeared in numerous operatic roles including Musetta in La Bohème, Despina in Così fan tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel and Mabel in Pirates of Penzance.

Ms. Sinclair has been a frequent guest artist on Westminster Conservatory's Concert and Recital Series, and she performs frequently with the Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs and the Orchestra of St. Luke's.  She performed in the ensemble of the World Premiere performance of Charles Wuorinen's opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories with New York City Opera.  She can be heard as soloist on the Seattle Symphony Chorale's recording "Singing a Glad Noel." She is co-founder of the Westminster Conservatory Youth Opera Workshop and has since served as its director.  Ms. Sinclair is currently on the roster of New York City Opera.

Soprano Tracey Chebra received a Master of Music in voice performance and the Bachelor of Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  She teaches voice at Westminster Choir College and Westminster Conservatory, and she is head of the voice department at the Conservatory.  She has performed with the Boheme Society and the Opera Repertory Theatre of Greensboro, NC.

The Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra is composed of Westminster Conservatory faculty members, adult amateurs from the Westminster Community Orchestra and advanced students from Westminster Conservatory.

Rider University is located at 2083 Lawrence Rd. (Route 206) in Lawrence Township. For further information call the Westminster Choir College box office at (609) 921-2663 or go to www.rider.edu/arts.