The Claremont Concert Orchestra, led by conductor Michael Deane Lamkin, will perform on Saturday, February 26, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, February 27, at 3:00 p.m. in Garrison Theater of the Scripps College Performing Arts Center. The orchestra will perform Wagner’s Overture to Rienzi, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, K. 216, Tchaikovsky’s Orchestra Suite No. 2, Op. 53, and Ziguenerweisen by Sarasate. The concert will also feature soloists Aurora Burd (Harvey Mudd College ’05) and Vivi Nguyen (Harvey Mudd College ’05). This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Joint Music Department of the Claremont Colleges at (909) 621-8280 or (909) 607-3267.
The Claremont Concert Orchestra is an auditioned ensemble of student musicians of the Claremont Colleges and Claremont area musicians specializing in the performance of repertoire from the 18 th through the mid-20 th centuries. Founded in 1977 under the sponsorship of the Joint Music Program of Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges, the orchestra is highly regarded for its expressive range and enthusiastic performances. The Claremont Concert Orchestra is a member of the American Symphony Orchestra League and the Association of California Symphony Orchestras.
Michael Deane Lamkin is music director and conductor of the Claremont Concert Orchestra, and a professor of music in the Joint Music Program of Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer and Scripps Colleges. Appointed to the Colleges’ faculty in 1977, he founded the Claremont Concert Orchestra the following year. In his work as conductor, Dr. Lamkin has performed throughout the United States, in Germany with the Munich Conservatory Opera School, in Austria and Hungary with ensembles from both the American Institute of Musical Studies of Graz and the Classical Music Festival of Eisenstadt, and in Slovakia with the Bratislava Chamber Orchestra. A regular participant and faculty member of the Classical Music Festival of Eisenstadt, Austria, since 1984, he was appointed artistic director and principal conductor in fall 2000, and now conducts performances each summer of major works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. A graduate of Baylor University and the University of Iowa, where he received his Ph.D. in musicology, Dr. Lamkin studied conducting with Daniel Sternberg and Cornelius Eberhardt. Dr. Lamkin is in his eighth year as dean of the faculty at Scripps College.
This concert evening is sponsored by the Joint Music Program of the Claremont Colleges, which seeks to offer many opportunities for music study and performance to music majors and other interested students who attend the Claremont Colleges. The program offers a supportive and intimate environment in order to stimulate productive means of personal and artistic fulfillment for the students involved. The Scripps College Performing Arts Center, opened in September 2003, houses teaching studios, sound-proof practice rooms with pianos, staff and faculty offices, a recording studio, the Nancy Hart Glanville Music Library, the MaryLou and George Boone Recital Hall, Lee Pattison Court, as well as the newly-renovated main stage, Garrison Theater.