Rhapsody in Blue highlights Wooster Symphony’s first concerts

The Wooster Symphony Orchestra (WSO) will perform their first concert of the 2023-24 season on Friday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 29 at 3 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall in Scheide Music Center (525 E. University Street). There will be three featured soloists at the concert including soprano Lauren Vanden Broeck and pianist Shitong Sigler ’12, both of whom are adjunct instructors of music at The College of Wooster, as well as baritone vocalist David Rice, College Trustee and pastor and head of staff at First Presbyterian Church of Wooster.

Music director and conductor Jeffrey Lindberg, professor of music, curated a program of five pieces that caters to the strengths of the WSO and featured soloists alike. Broeck and Rice will be featured in Moore’s Arias from Ballad of Baby Doe and excerpts of Copland’s Old American Songs, and the program will conclude with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue featuring Sigler.

Broeck received her Master of Music from the Peabody Conservatory and has performed with top orchestras throughout her career, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and an artist’s residency at Astronaut Symphony in 2016. Active in communities at home and abroad, Broeck conducted a choir based out of the Holy Trinity Music School in Port-au-Prince in Haiti called Les Petits Chanteurs and currently performs in local ensembles including the Cleveland Chamber Choir, Apollo’s Fire, and Les Délices. Some of her most recent roles include Jenny Slade in Robert Ward’s Roman Fever and the Queen of Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.

Sigler, also a piano faculty member at Ashland University, has played piano with the WSO, Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra, and multiple chamber groups. She has presented research on piano pedagogy and entrepreneurship in numerous professional conferences throughout the United States, including the 2020 College Music Society Great Lakes Conference and the 2020 Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Symposium. Sigler, originally from China, studied at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music under Professor Jinlan Jiang. An alumna of Wooster, Sigler graduated with a bachelor’s in business economics and piano performance. She also holds two master’s degrees in piano performance and piano pedagogy and a doctoral degree in piano performance from The Ohio State University.

Prior to his entry into ministry and his role at First Presbyterian Church, Rice had a prolific career as a professional opera and concert singer in both Germany and the United States. He received his bachelor’s in music with a minor in theater from North Park College and his Master of Music from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. After a period as the lyric baritone in the German opera company Wuppertaler Buehne from 1989 to 1994, Rice performed as a soloist with numerous esteemed opera companies and orchestras, including the Chicago Opera Theater, San Francisco Sinfonia, and the Charlotte Symphony. He also participated in noteworthy summer music festivals in Aspen, Colorado and Marlboro, Vermont.

Lindberg has conducted the WSO since 1986. During his time at Wooster, Lindberg has drawn attention to lesser-known composers and exposed both his students and community members to world-class soloists and compositions. Lindberg is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, the director of the Wooster Jazz Ensemble, and teaches both jazz history and trombone at Wooster. With the Chicago Jazz Orchestra performing numerous jazz transcriptions by Lindberg himself, the ensemble has also featured notable musicians including Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder.

Friday’s WSO concert is performed in conjunction with Wooster’s Black and Gold Weekend, which features a series of events welcoming Wooster alumni and families to campus. Tickets are $10 for the public and free for students, staff, and faculty of the College. Tickets are available at Buehler’s (Milltown and Towne Market), the Scheide Music Center, and at the door. For more information, contact Melissa Puster in the Department of Music at mpuster@wooster.edu or 330-263-2419.

Posted in News on October 24, 2023.