“Operation Mozart,” an unprecedented collaboration of ECU’s Departments of Music and English and Languages, will take the stage in the Raymond J. Estep Multimedia Center of the Bill S. Cole University Center on Thursday, April 13, beginning at 4 p.m.
An afternoon and evening of music, food, enlightenment, and drama will begin with keyboard, instrumental and choral performances of Mozart’s music by ECU faculty and students. The evening will culminate at 7:30 p.m. with ECU SCREENS’ recorded-live presentation of the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain’s 2017 production of Amadeus.
Operation Mozart is free and open to the public. General admission tickets to “Amadeus” are $10. Tickets are free for ECU students.
Operation Mozart kicks off at 4 p.m with a recital of Mozart’s compositions for keyboard directed by ECU’s W. T. Skye Garcia. The keyboard program features: solo performances by Courtney Carol Phillips, Dr. Houston Mount, Carolynn Ashley Stephens; a duet by Kaitlyn Jane Stevens and W. T. Skye Garcia; and an eight-hand, two-piano performance by Garcia, Stevens, Phillips and Miriam Kast White.
At 4:30 p.m., Dr. Nathaniel Berman will direct an instrumental program that will include: flute performances by Flora Knight, accompanied by Miriam White on piano and Alexandra Aguirre, accompanied by Rudy Lupinski; a clarinet performance by Sarah Sanford, accompanied by Lupinski; and a Bad to the Tone clarinet quartet performance by Colton Groover, Quentin Palmer and Sarah Sanford on clarinet and Krysta Brown on bass clarinet.
During a break at 5 p.m., the ECU chapter of the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME) will sell $2 pretzels, Act One of their “A Taste of Germany” fundraiser.
At 5:30 p.m., Dr. John S. Walker will direct a recital of choral performances featuring soloists Rebekah Davidson, Makaila Rodriguez, Emily Ross and Leah Whiten. The choral program will conclude with a performance by the East Central University Chorale, recent winners of the Golden State Choral Trophy, an international competition conducted in Monterey, California in November 2016.
At 6 p.m., Dr. Joshua Grasso, associate professor in the Department of English and Languages, will give a talk titled “Amadeus: The Lines vs. the Letters.” Grasso will use Mozart’s letters to flesh out the imperfect portrait of the composer that has been formed in the public imagination, largely from Peter Shaffer’s Olivier- and Tony Award-winning play Amadeus, which will be screened later in the evening.
Grasso’s talk will also show how Mozart’s words and his brief career give us glimpses of much of the history of late 18th century Europe, tracing developments that not only led to revolutionary artists such as Beethoven, but even to democratic principles that would soon take root in the American colonies.
At 6:30 p.m., NAfME will host Act Two of their “A Taste of Germany” fundraiser, featuring grilled bratwursts and sauerkraut, potato cakes and black forest cake.
At 7:30 p.m., Operation Mozart will culminate with a recorded-live screening of the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain’s 2017 production of Amadeus featuring Lucian Msamati (Game of Thrones) as Salieri, with on-stage orchestral accompaniment by the Southbank Sinfonia.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a rowdy young prodigy, is determined to make a splash when he arrives in Vienna, the music capital of the world. Awestruck by his genius, court composer Antonio Salieri has the power to promote his talent or destroy his name. Seized by obsessive jealousy he begins a war with Mozart, with music, and ultimately, with God.
“Amadeus” will have a 20-minute intermission, during which, ECU SCREENS will serve free ice cream.
The ECU SCREENS summer season begins on Friday, May 19 with a 1 p.m. screening of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.”
To learn more about ECU SCREENS and upcoming events, like the ECU SCREENS Facebook page or visit www.ecuscreens.blogspot.com. Contact Dr. Rebecca Nicholson-Weir, co-director of ECU SCREENS, at (580) 559-5929 or rnichlsn@ecok.edu. For more information about the Royal National Theatre in Great Britain and other NT Live screenings, visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/.
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