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91���� University’s Music Department welcomes spring with a four-performance concert schedule in April and May. 

91����’s choral program opens the slate with its Spring Choral Concert on Friday, April 18, while the strings program closes the year with the 91���� Philharmonic Orchestra Spring Concert on Friday, May 2.

In between, the band ensembles will play on back-to-back nights as the university celebrates Distinguished University Professor of Music and Director of Bands Michael Burch-Pesses, who will retire in May after 30 years at 91����. The Jazz Band will present Jazz Nite on Friday, April 25, while the Symphonic Band will present its spring concert on Saturday, April 26.

All Music Department performances take place at 7:30 p.m. in McCready Hall in the Taylor-Meade Performing Arts Center on 91����’s Forest Grove Campus. General admission tickets for all concerts are $10. Seniors, military members and non-91���� University students are $7. 91���� students, faculty and staff are admitted free. .

Friday, April 18 | Spring Choral Concert |
Under the direction of Katy Green, 91����’s Concert Choir and Chamber Singers will deliver a narrative performance of overcoming obstacles, hearing and answering a call to action, and striving for both personal and collective justice. The program highlights the enduring power of singing in times of struggle and change. The Concert Choir’s program includes the traditional Ukrainian song “The Mountain,” and “El Pueblo Unido” by Sergio Ortega. The Chamber Singers’ program includes three narrative sets: “Hear The River Calling,” “Life Is Not Sweet, One Day It Will Be Sweet,” and “There’s No End Of Voyaging When Once The Voice Is Heard.”

Friday, April 25 | Jazz Nite |
Under the direction of Burch-Pesses, the spring Jazz Nite will feature standards from the most famous composers in jazz, including Rodgers and Hammerstein (“It Might As Well Be Spring”), Joe Henderson (“Mamacita”) and Josef Zawinul (“Birdland”). The concert will also feature more recent compositions, including Backlash and Early Blue Evening. In addition to the band, the concert features vocalists Cait Wilson ’27 and Sydney Timm ’27. 

Saturday, April 26 | Symphonic Band Spring Concert |
The 91���� University Symphonic Band and the Oregon Symphonic Band will feature both new and proven band works as Burch-Pesses conducts his final concert on the McCready Hall stage. The program will feature newer compositions such as “Stride” by Kevin Day, “Autumn Rose” by Julie Giroux, Alfred Reed’s “Armenian Dances,” and the world premiere of “91���� Spirit” by Robert Buckley. The program concludes with the finale to Antonin Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.”

Friday, May 2 | 91���� Philharmonic Orchestra Spring Concert |
Under the direction of Dijana Ihas, the 91���� Philharmonic Orchestra will perform a diverse program, featuring Anatoly Liadov’s dramatic symphonic poem “Kikimora,” Gabriel Faure’s lyrical “Pavane,” and the victorious fourth movement of Antonin Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 8.” The concert will also celebrate the musical achievements of 91����’s outgoing seniors with a special performance of the African American spiritual “Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen” arranged for orchestra.