The University Orchestra, conducted by Susan Deaver, will perform Shostakovich Festive Overture, Vaughan Williams A London Symphony and two opera arias by Mozart and Gounod, sung by David John Davani, a winner of the 2015 Stony Brook University Undergraduate Concerto Competition. The concert is Tuesday, November 17, on Staller Center‘s Main Stage at 8 pm. Tickets are $10 general and $5 seniors and students, and are on sale at the Staller Center Box Office or by calling (631) 632-ARTS. For more information, contact the Department of Music at (631) 632-7330 or visit www.stonybrook.edu/music.
Baritone David John Davani is a senior at Stony Brook University and a recipient of the Bright Lights scholarship for academic and performance excellence. He studies privately with David L. Jones and his vocal coach at Stony Brook is Timothy Long. David’s vocal studies began with Lois Winter at Mannes College Prep, where he was accepted in their rigorous Honors Program for both voice and clarinet. In 2015 he attended the Curtis Institute of Music’s Summerfest Young Artist Program. His performances include Art Song Preservation Society’s “Spring into Song Master Class Series” with pianist Mark Markham at the National Opera Center, Stony Brook’s Opera Scenes, several solo recitals and festivals at the Mannes College of Music, as well as solo appearances in oratorios and choral works by Handel, Mozart and Bach. He has won or placed in multiple competitions including the 2015 Stony Brook University Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, 2015 American Prize for Art Song, 2015 Five Towns Music and Arts Foundation, 2014 North Shore Chamber Choir’s Marilyn C. Lloyd Award, Friday Woodmere Classical Music Club’s 2014 Young Artist Competition, and in 2013 he was a National YoungArts Foundation award winner. In Spring 2016 David will be performing the role of Shaunard in Puccini’s La Bohème with the Stony Brook Opera.
The University Orchestra is an all-student ensemble featuring undergraduate and graduate music majors as well as non-music majors at Stony Brook University. In addition, the University Orchestra has a select number of students from the Stony Brook Young Scholars Program and the Stony Brook Pre-College Program. The Orchestra presents a concert series each season at Staller Center and has performed a full range of orchestral repertoire including major works such as Brahms Symphony No. 2 & No. 4, Elgar Enigma Variations, Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 & No. 5, Vaughan Williams London Symphony along with standard overtures and concertos. The season also includes an annual Messiah Sing-Along in December and a Family Concert each spring. The University Orchestra, in conjunction with the Department of Music, sponsors the annual Undergraduate Concerto Competition and the winner is the featured soloist on the final University Orchestra concert each May. Orchestral students are also involved in a series of orchestral readings and orchestral master classes given by Stony Brook Music faculty. The University Orchestra rehearses weekly on Tuesday evenings and holds auditions at the beginning of each semester. For more information about auditioning and future concerts, contact the Stony Brook Department of Music at (631) 632-7330 or visit the website.
Conductor Susan Deaver has been music director and conductor of the University Orchestra at Stony Brook University since 2000. She also teaches conducting at Stony Brook. As an orchestral fellowship student at Tanglewood, she worked with both Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa and was selected to participate in Tanglewood’s Conducting Seminar Classes with Gustav Meier. She was selected to participate in the New York Philharmonic’s Conductors Table with Zubin Mehta, Alan Gilbert and Leonard Slatkin. Among her conducting credits are the Washington Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center; Thüringen Philharmonie in Gotha, Germany; the Island Chamber Symphony; the Bronx Opera Chamber Orchestra; the Seoul Symphony of New York at Lincoln Center; the C.W. Post Orchestra at Tilles Center; and contemporary music at both Manhattan School of Music and Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. In Korea she was a guest conductor at the New International Music Festival at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, the Pusan Festival Orchestra and the Masan City Symphony Orchestra. She conducted the Long Island Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2007 and 2008, and collaborated with the Youth Chamber Orchestra of Bergen (Norway) on their concert tour to New York City in April 2007. In addition to her conducting at Stony Brook, Deaver is music director and conductor of the North Shore Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of Long Island Youth Orchestra, and on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music’s Precollege Division and LIU Post. She is director of the LIU Post Chamber Music Festival, which is held each July.
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