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Conservatory

Category: Conservatory

Symphonic Band Concert

Saturday, March 8 | 7:30 p.m.
Memorial Chapel

Directed by Matthew Arau

Featuring the Works of:

  • Grainger – “Gum-Suckers March”
  • LaBarr, arr. Wilson – “Grace Before Sleep
  • Mayhew ’17, arr. Trentadue – “Symphony No. 1 – The Eternal Present”*
  • Schumann – “Chester”
  • Hokoyama – “Beyond”

    *World Premiere

New Music Series: Wet Ink Ensemble

Presents Second Nature by Eric Wubbels

Sunday, March 9 | 7:30 p.m.
Harper Hall

Written for and performed by the Wet Ink Ensemble

  • Erin Lesser: Flutes
  • Ian Antonio: Percussion
  • Eric Wubbels: Keyboards

Second Nature is a new concert-length music and video work from composer/performer and Wet Ink Ensemble Co-Director Eric Wubbels, an artist who “brings meticulous poise to his experimentalism,” and whose music, “with references to many traditions, sounds like nothing by any other composer” (The New York Times).

Written for and developed in long-term collaboration with Wet Ink Ensemble members Erin Lesser and Ian Antonio, Second Nature is an extended meditation on cycles of growth, decay, and regeneration, drawing on ancient, contemporary, and futurist perspectives, instruments, and technologies.

Taking as its genre-ancestor Morton Feldman’s late trios for flute, piano, and percussion, the piece then pivots in a radically different direction, finding meaning and complexity in the particularly loaded contemporary intersection of nature, culture, and technology.

Over the course of more than 70 minutes, Second Nature brings together musical scenarios of the most extreme variety and diversity into a stunningly original synthesis. Movements for traditional instrumental combinations (flute, vibraphone, piano) segue directly into music for computer-controlled cymbals and 3-D printed ultrasonic flute, and passages for analog synthesizer and inside-piano technique are accompanied by homemade (and in one case, home-grown) wind and percussion instruments made from plant, rock, and animal bone materials. Video interludes of the trio performing outdoors at specifically chosen geographical and seasonal locations extend the conceptual and symbolic reach of the piece beyond the concert hall and back into the natural world itself.

Mainstage Opera: “The Consul”

Thursday, March 6 | Friday, March 7 | Saturday, March 8 | 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 9 | 3 p.m.
Stansbury Theatre

Lawrence University Opera Theatre presents The Consul March 6-9, 2025.

The Consul

  • Sung in English
  • Composed and Libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti
  • Winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize of Music and the NY Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical, Menotti’s The Consul exposes the callous nature of blocking political refugees from entering a neighboring country. Threatened and watched by a fascist, militarized régime, Magda Sorel seeks to bring her baby and mother-in-law over the boarder to join her husband, a member of the resistance.
  • Copeland Woodruff: Stage Director
  • Kristin Roach: Conductor & Music Director

Tickets

  • $15 for adults
  • $10 for seniors
  • $8 for non-LU students
  • LU students, faculty, and staff receive 2 free tickets with LU ID presented at the Box Office (while supplies last).
LU box office

Lawrence University Choirs Concert

Friday, Feb. 28 | 7:30-9:30 pm.
Memorial Chapel

Lawrence University Viking Chorale, Concert Choir, and Cantala present their Winter Term concert, featuring faculty artists Kivie Cahn-Lipman, Brian Pertl, and Leila Ramagopal Pertl, as well as a world premiere by Alexander Johnson ’12.

Free and open to the public!

Can’t make it to the Lawrence Memorial Chapel? Catch the live webcast here.

Lawrence University Wind Ensemble

Saturday, March 1 | 7:30 p.m.
Memorial Chapel

The Lawrence University Wind Ensemble is proud to present our tribute to the Conservatory’s 150th Anniversary in concert! Our program is entitled “Homegrown: Celebrating the 150th” and features works by student and faculty alumni as well as Wisconsin composers and friends of the Conservatory. We hope to see you there as we celebrate and honor the legacy of the Conservatory with this special concert!

Featuring works by David Werfelmann ’06, Percy Grainger and Fred Sturm ’73, John Harmon ’57, Charles Rochester Young, and Theresa Martin. Featuring Nadje Noordhuis, trumpet.

Free and open to the public!

Can’t make it to the Lawrence Memorial Chapel? Catch the live webcast here.