A Musical Evening with Adelphi Symphony Orchestra

Online, March 27, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Adelphi Symphony Orchestra will return to the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center this spring with soprano Carole Bertho-Woolliams, a specialist in 20th century French repertoire, as a soloist in the tender exploration of love and the individual's relationship to God in Olivier Messsiaen's deeply personal song cycle, Poèmes pour Mi. The orchestra, directed by international conductor and Associate Professor Christopher Lyndon-Gee, will also feature works by Hector Berlioz and Beethoven. The show will take place on Friday, April 4 at 8:00 p.m. in the Concert Hall in the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center (AUPAC) located at 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY.

The concert opens with Berlioz's overture 'Les Francs Juges'. The overture is one of the few surviving remains of Berlioz's early French work as he is believed to have destroyed most of his manuscripts in bitter disappointment after it had failed to obtain the required government licensing for staging. 'Les Francs Juges', alludes to the cruelty of the secret courts of Westphalia known during the Middle Ages as the Vehmen or Fëmen whose sole punishment against accused heretics, witches and others was execution.

The program continues with Olivier Messiaen's Poèmes pour Mi. "Mi" was the pet name of Messiaen's first wife, violinist Justine Delbos. Poèmes pour Mi was written while the composer's wife Delbos, who would die prematurely young in 1959, was pregnant with their first child two years after their marriage. The song cycle depicts human love within marriage as the illustration of divine love for mankind. This early work draws heavily on Messaien's predecessor, Claude Debussy. Finally, the program concludes with Beethoven's much-loved Symphony No. 6, the "Pastoral".

Soprano Carole Bertho-Woolliams has a passion and interest for French composers and has written extensively on the subject. She has published a book on the French woman composer Lili Boulanger and she is working on a second book on French women composers who are winners of the Prix de Rome. Dr. Bertho-Woolliams' operatic debut was in 2001 with the Montpellier Opera under the direction of Vladimir Kojoukharov. She has performed in numerous concerts with Minsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse and the India Galante Orchestra and several recitals internationally.

Tickets for the concert are on sale for just $20, with discounts available for seniors, students and Adelphi alumni. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit aupac.adelphi.edu. Information and tickets are also available by calling The Lucia and Steven N. Fischer Box Office at (516) 877-4000 or by emailing [email protected]. Regular box office hours are Tuesday through Friday from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The box office is also open two hours before most scheduled performances.