Dr. Matthew Smith
The UTC Music Department will present the UTC Concert Band, directed by Matthew Smith, in concert on Wednesday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. The concert will take place at the UTC Fine Arts Center, Roland Hayes Concert Hall, 752 Vine St. Admission is free.
Works featured in this recital are Samuel R. Hazo’s “Ride”, Eric Whitacre’s “The Seal Lullaby”, inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The White Seal, and “Symphonic Dance #3 -Fiesta”, by Clifton Williams, which was one of five dances commissioned by the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 1964. In this piece you can hear the matador’s arrival, and celebrate the joyous climax to the festivities. “The Hounds of Spring” by Alfred Reed tells of a character in Greek mythology named Atalanta, who grows up in the wilderness, and takes an oath of virginity to the goddess Artemis. She was Victorian poet Charles Swinburne’s inspiration to rewrite the Greek Tragedy in an 1865 poem entitled “Atalanta in Calydon”, which was the inspiration for this piece. Stephen Melillo’s “Escape from Plato’s Cave” is inspired by a story told by Plato, in which cave-dwellers are deprived of the knowledge of the Light outside. In this story, the people of the Underworld are visited by a Man from the Light, who tells them of the wondrous world outside.
Dr. Smith is in his first year at UTC serving as interim director of Bands. He comes to UTC from Castleton State College where he was the associate director of Bands. He has presented clinics and most recently completed his third season with the Hartford Opera Theater’s “New in November” series, which stages, rehearses and performs new 10 minute operas all in the span of 48 hours. Dr. Smith has taken his ensembles to perform nationally and internationally to such places as the Riverside Church in New York City, and St. Peter’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. He is also belongs to several associations, including The Music Educators Associations of: Connecticut, Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and NAfME – The National Association for Music Education.
For more information call the UTC Music office at 425-4601 or visit http://www.utc.edu/music/projects/performances.php.