SBSO wraps up Beethoven symphonic cycle with No. 9

SOUTH BEND — The South Bend Symphony Orchestra concludes its multi-season cycle of all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies with its concert at 7:30 p.m. April 1 at the Morris Performing Arts Center, 211 N. Michigan St.

The program combines the classic and the contemporary with Carter Pann’s “Slalom,” Mason Bates’ “Ode” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Maestro Alastair Willis, who has been the SBSO’s music director since July 2017, has previously conducted works by Bates and Pann with the SBSO, including Pann’s “Slalom” at his audition concert in 2016.

When he programmed two works by Bates in April 2019 for a concert that featured Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Willis designated the composer a “Living Beethoven,” that is, a contemporary composer whose works he believes will still be played in 200 years.

The concert concludes with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

The symphony is scored for solo vocalists, choir and orchestra and is known for its use of the human voice in the final movement, which sets a text from Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy.”

Sharing the stage with the SBSO are soloists Kiera Duffy, soprano; Emma Sorenson, mezzo-soprano; Emanuel Cristian-Caraman, tenor; and Bill McMurray, bass.

The Notre Dame Chorale, led by director Alexander Blachly; the Notre Dame Glee Club, led by Dan Stowe; and St. Mary’s College Belles Voix and the South Bend Chamber Singers, under the direction of Dr. Nancy Menk, also perform as guest ensembles.

Tickets are $84-$12.

For more information, call 574-235-9190 or visit morriscenter.org.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: SBSO wraps up Beethoven symphonic cycle with No. 9