Monday, April 21, 2008

Maestro Anshel Brusilow to conduct final concert with UNT Symphony

By Pegasus News wire

Maestro Anshel Brusilow will conduct his final concert with the University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday, April 23 before his retirement from the university after a UNT career spanning 35 years.

Brusilow (pronounced BREW-si-lof), a former Dallas Symphony Orchestra conductor and Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster, will lead the UNT Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky (Op. 78), performed with the UNT Grand Chorus, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor, the Pathetique.

The concert takes place at 8 p.m. in Winspear Performance Hall of the Murchison Performing Arts Center, located along the north side of Interstate 35E at North Texas Boulevard. Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for senior citizens, non-UNT students, children, UNT faculty and staff and groups of 10 or more; free to UNT students with ID.For tickets, contact the Murchison box office at (940) 369-7802 orwww.thempac.com.

To honor the retiring conductor, former UNT music professor Sue Bancroft and her husband, Christopher, an alumnus, are leading a campaign to create the Anshel Brusilow Chair in Orchestral Studies. The Lupe Murchison Foundation recently gave $500,000 to go toward a $1 million endowment. Proceeds primarily will fund scholarships for orchestral students.

In addition to serving as the UNT Symphony Orchestra conductor, Brusilow established the UNT Chamber Orchestra in 1973. Under his tenure, the UNT orchestra performed at the Mozart Bicentennial at Lincoln Center in March 1991. In 1992, the UNT Symphony Orchestra toured Spain and the Mediterranean (Balearic Islands and the island of Ibiza), including a featured performance on U.S. National Day at Expo '92 in Seville. In October of that year, the UNT Symphony Orchestra performed Verdi's Requiem in Monterrey, Mexico, as part of the Festival Internacional Alfonso Reyes. In his retirement, he plans to continue conducting the Richardson Symphony Orchestra.

Source: UNT

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