Orchestra & String Ensemble

This full-sized orchestra performs concerts of the standard repertoire, Young Peoples Concerts, and a Pops concert. The group also sponsors an annual soloist competition. Membership is open to University students and members of the community by formal audition.

String Ensemble
Timothy Schwarz, Director

The String Ensemble offers a specialized performing opportunity for those playing the violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Interested students should contact the ensemble conductor (schwarzt@rowan.edu).

Music from Theresienstadt: Sunday, November 4^th at 3:00

Pfleeger Auditorium

Sheila Browne, viola soloist

Karen Uslin, guest speaker

Theresienstadt was a concentration camp under the Nazi’s, which was meant to act as a community for the cultural elite. Many artists, musicians, and poets resided there, including former members of the Boston Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, and other iconic institutions. Although used by the Nazi’s for propaganda, 150,000 people were held there against their will. Many of these were sent to other concentration camps for extermination, and over 10,000 were killed in Theresienstadt.

This concert features two works written in Theresienstadt, under what had to be extremely stressful conditions. The program also features a Viola Concerto by Leo Smit, a Dutch composer who, although not at all religious, was killed because of his Jewish heritage. It opens with the Concerto Grosso No. 1 by Ernest Bloch, who was writing music influenced by his Jewish heritage in the decades before Hitler rose to power.

   Pavel Haas: A Study for Strings

       Written in Theresienstadt, the artist’s resident concentration camp located in former Czechoslovakia.

   Leo Smit: Concerto for Viola and Strings (Sheila Browne, soloist)

       Dutch composer who was murdered at the Sobibor extermination camp.

   Gideon Klein: String Trio

       Written in Theresienstadt, the artist’s resident concentration camp located in former Czechoslovakia.

   Ernest Bloch: Concerto Grosso No. 1

       Jewish composer born in Switzerland, whose music was greatly influenced by his Jewish heritage.

Spring Concert: Sunday, April 28^th at 3:00

String Festival Ensemble Winner & String Ensemble Concerto Competition Winners

   Felix Mendelssohn: String Symphony No. 12 in G Minor

   William Grant Still

            -Summerland

            -Mother and Child

   Krzystof Penderecki: Vivace from Sinfonietta for Strings