UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Graduate Exhibition, a showcase of musical and theatrical performances, cutting-edge research, and visual arts presented by Penn State's graduate students, will open with performances at 7 p.m. Friday, March 23, at Esber Recital Hall in Music Building I on the Penn State University Park campus.
Among the instrumental pieces to be performed on Friday are: on piano, “Allegro de concert, Op. 18,” a rare piece by Alexander Scriabin, and “Schubert Fantasy” in F minor for four hands; “The Metamorphic Tuba” by Benjamin Britten; “España,” an excerpt from “Pieces for Horn” by Russian horn player and composer Vitaly Buyanovsky; “Gamin” by William Grant Still, often referred to as “the Dean” of African-American composers; “Trio for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon” by Francis Poulenc ; “The Danse Macabre, Op. 40” for violin and piano by Camille Saint-Saëns, and “Scherzo for Piccolo and Contrabassoon with Recitative” by Italian bassoonist and composer Umberto Bertoni.
In departure from the instrumental pieces, the program also includes a tenor voice performance of the aria “Che gelida manina” from La bohème by Giacomo Puccini and six actor’s showcase performances. Showcases are a common practice of leading graduate-level and conservatory actor training programs, and are a means to present actors' talents to regional and New York City theatre casting directors and talent agents.
On Sunday, March 25, nearly 250 graduate students will present their research in the Alumni and Heritage Halls at the HUB-Robeson Center and 10 students for whom creating studio work is a required part of their degree program will present their works of art in the HUB Gallery. All students will be speaking about their scholarly work in terms familiar to a general audience. Judging will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the event will be open to the public from noon to 3 p.m.
Awards will be given to those students whose presentations are judged best in the categories of arts and humanities, engineering, health and life sciences, performance, physical sciences and mathematics, social and behavioral sciences, and visual arts. An Awards Ceremony in the HUB Auditorium will conclude the Exhibition.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information about the Graduate Exhibition, visit http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/exhibition/ or call the Graduate School at 814-865-2516.