Syracuse Symphony offers advance discount tickets to SU students for ‘McDuffie Plays Glass’ May 12-13

Syracuse Symphony offers advance discount tickets to SU students for ‘McDuffie Plays Glass’ May 12-13April 25, 2006Jaime Winne Alvarezjlwinne@syr.edu

The Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (SSO), a community partner with Syracuse University’s Pulse, is offering specially priced advance tickets to SU students for the May 12-13 performances of “McDuffie Plays Glass.” The final concert in the 2005-06 Post-Standard Classics Series, the performances will take place at 8 p.m. in the Mulroy Civic Center at Oncenter. Tickets are $5 for students with valid SU I.D. SU faculty/staff and parents of SU students can purchase tickets for $10.

Led by SSO Music Director Daniel Hege, “McDuffie Plays Glass” features celebrated violinist Robert McDuffie. The performance begins with Arvo Part’s “Festina Lente,” which translated from Latin means “hurry slowly.” The piece features strings playing at three different speeds to create a feeling of unhurried motion. This is the first time the SSO will perform the piece and the piece that follows, Philippe Glass’s “Violin Concerto.” The harmonious and rhythmic work will feature McDuffie as soloist. The performance will conclude with Shostakovich’s intense “Symphony No. 8,” which uses insistent rhythms, moodiness and dissonance to depict horrors of war.

McDuffie is a Grammy-nominated violinist whose acclaimed recordings for Telarc include violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Adams, Glass, Barber and Rozsa, as well as Viennese favorites. He plays a 1735 Guarneri del Gesu violin, known as the “Ladenburg.” McDuffie has appeared as soloist with most of the world’s major orchestras and returns to Rome, Italy each June as cofounder and artistic director of The Rome Chamber Music Festival. The mayor of Rome recently awarded him the prestigious Premio Simpatia, in honor of his contribution to the cultural life of the city.

He has been profiled on NBC’s “Today,” CBS’s “Sunday Morning,” PBS’s “Charlie Rose” and A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts,” and in The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. McDuffie is also a Distinguished University Professor of Music at Mercer University in his hometown Macon, Ga. He resides in New York with his wife and children.

Prior to the concert, audience members may attend “Behind the Music,” a free discussion at 7 p.m. that enhances the concert experience by presenting audience members with background information on repertoires and guest artists. All ticket-buyers are welcome to attend.

Regularly priced tickets for “McDuffie Plays Glass” start at $16. For more information or to order tickets, call the SSO Customer Service Center at 424-8200 or (800) 724-3810, or visit http://www.syracusesymphony.org.