WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., March 17, 2015 — West Liberty University’s Department of Music and Theater will present a program entitled “Sanctuary” at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 2244 Marshall Ave., Wheeling, at 3 p.m., Sunday, March 22.
The University’s Wind Ensemble will be featured in the program that will include musical works honoring “sacred space” and “heroic souls.” Adjunct instructor Evan Robinson will play solo trombone.
The centerpiece of the program will be the Grand Funeral and Triumphant Symphony by the famous French Romantic composer, Hector Berlioz. This monumental work is seldom heard because of its unusual instrumentation, but is presented in a new modern form here that is the culmination of an ongoing project of the ensemble’s conductor, Dr. Matthew Inkster.
Inkster spent a week last summer in France, and conducted 12 members of the Berlin Philharmonic, widely considered the world’s best orchestra. He also is director of Instrumental Activities at WLU, conducts its Wind Ensemble and is conductor of the Wheeling Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Berlioz was commissioned to provide a work to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the last iteration of the French Revolution – the “Three Glorious Days” of July 1830. The dedication of the July Column, which now stands at the Place de la Bastille, was the event for which the symphony was written.
The first movement was performed as a funeral procession as the remains of the heroes were moved down the boulevards and through the streets of Paris to be interred at the column. The second movement represents a musical eulogy for the fallen, and the work concludes with an “Apotheosis” – a triumphant deification of the heroes’ souls.
The concert is free and open to the public. A free-will offering will be collected and donated to further the work of the St. Vincent Parish.