Miami's School of Fine Arts and the department of music recently signed an agreement to give a featured performance. Groups slated to perform include the Chamber Singers, Choraliers, Collegiate Chorale, Men's Glee Club, Miami University Symphony Orchestra, and the Miami University Wind Ensemble.

Music ensembles will perform in a special all-Miami University concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7, in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, which seats 2,804. Ticket availability and other details will be announced as plans develop.

Plans are in motion for a "Miami University Weekend in New York" that will include a special menu of activities culminating with the Carnegie Hall performance.

James Lentini, dean of the School of Fine Arts, said, "This is a wonderful opportunity for a celebration that includes the whole university, and we are crafting plans to make this a major event for all Miami University alumni and friends. I congratulate the faculty, staff, and students of the department of music, whose continued commitment to excellence has allowed this opportunity to come to life."

The department of music at Miami is listed as one of 25 "Strongest Programs" nationwide among all colleges (public and private) by the 2012 Fiske Guide to Colleges, and boasts successful graduates that include conductor Steven Reineke of the New York Pops.

And over they came. Over 75 high school musicians, under the direction of Paul Stanbery spent the late afternoon hobnobbing with members of the MUSO and MU music faculty and sitting down together to rehearse and play together under the batons of Stanbery and MUSO director Ricardo Averbach.

"It was a great experience for us all," said Dorian Mohar, MUSO's principal trumpet. "The GMYO players had a chance to play alongside more seasoned players, and we had the opportunity to meet and work with musicians with the same aspirations we had when we were in their shoes a few years ago."

The joint ensemble worked on Variations on a Shaker Melody by Aaron Copland, the English Folk Song Suite of Ralph Vaughn Williams, and American Salute by Morton Gould.

The day after the event, Stanbery wrote in a note to music department chair Judith Delzell that "the music making was grand, and the connection between my kids, Miami students, and the tremendous turn out of the music department faculty was special. The goal, to make the music department - and especially the orchestra - a familiar and welcoming place for my kids was met 'in spades'."

The collaboration was the last event of the academic year for the GMYO, an affiliate of the Hamilton-Fairfield Symphony Orchestra, also conducted by Stanbery.

Organized by Averbach, president of CODA's Northeast Division, the event hosted several sessions on performance practice, a retrospective on the legacy of conductor Max Rudolph, and several sessions on surviving and thriving in the current economic and technological environment in which we live.

"Of all the regional conferences (I have attended), this was by far the best," writes conductor Jonathan Mitchell of Boston College, adding to a host of laudatory comments from other attendees. Accolades from Northern Kentucky University's Frank Resteran referenced Averbach's work as the organizer and musician, writing "...you are to be commended for your excellent organizational skill in addition to the highest level of musicianship and artistry that you always show. Your program is now a model to me. BRAVO!"

From Dr. Mark Hartman of Shippensburg University (Pennsylvania) came this note:

"I would like to let all know that the conference last weekend at Miami University was a great time. I want to applaud Ricardo Averbach for his efforts in making it useful and user-friendly, and people centered. It was also great to meet new people that are both serious professionals and warm human beings."

MUSO concert.
A major highlight of the conference was the performance on Saturday evening by the MUSO, which included Iphigenia in Aulis Overture (Gluck/Wagner); Moldau by Smetana, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No. 2; Gypsy Airs (Zigeunerweisen), by Sarasate, featuring guest violinist Daniel Guedes, and the premiere performance* of The Insects' Martyrdom by Heitor Villa-Lobos, using a newly published critical edition produced by Averbach under a grant from Miami University's Office for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS). Of the concert, Patricia Sparti of Gardner-Webb University wrote "FABULOUS CONCERT AND BRAVO TO YOU!!!!" (caps and exclamation points hers).

The conference brought to Miami University more than 30 college orchestra maestros from as far away as Utah, Texas, and Massachusetts.