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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (11/06)
Media Contact: Dr. Todd Gabriel, Hurley School of Music, 318-869-5235, or Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120

Centenary's Hurley Orchestra to Celebrate Christmas with Dec. 4 Concert in Anderson Auditorium


Dr. Todd Gabriel directs. (Centenary News Service file photo)

SHREVEPORT, LA — The Hurley Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Todd Gabriel will celebrate Christmas at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 in Anderson Auditorium at Centenary College’s Hurley Music Building. The guest artist is Hurley School of Music faculty violist Adrienne Gabriel. The concert is free and open to the public.

The program begins with senior Centenary students, Tim Nicholson and Cody Andrews on violin and David Pennywell on cello, who will be featured in Arcangelo Corelli’s (1653-1713) “Christmas” Concerti Grosso op.6, no. 8. This work with strings and organ has been one of the most beloved Christmas celebrations since its publication in 1714. The last movement is extremely religious, describing Christ’s cradle in Bethlehem. The swaying Sicilian rhythm of this ‘Pastoral’ movement was later used as a model by Handel in the Messiah and Bach in his Christmas Oratorio.


“Three English Fifteenth Century Christmas Carols” was written by Todd Gabriel (b. 1957) especially for this concert and the Hurley Orchestra. They are cheerful and energetic renditions of: 1) Mervele noght, Joseph; 2) What tydynges bryngest thou, messangere? and 3) Make we joye nowe in this fest.
Ralph Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958) wrote perhaps the most enjoyable work written to date for solo viola and orchestra. The Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra is eight movements organized into three sets, beginning with a set of Christmas pieces.

Adrienne Gabriel has been a violist with the Shreveport Symphony since 1989, as well as a member of the Longview Symphony and Shreveport Opera. She has been a guest artist with the Shreveport Symphony, the Northwestern University Orchestra and the Hurley Symphony Orchestra at Centenary College on numerous occasions.

Before coming to Shreveport, she was a member of the Opera Company of Boston, legendary conductor/composer Gunther Schuller’s New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble, and Budapest String Quartet first violinist Alexander Schneider’s New York String Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. Her degrees include a bachelor of music from New England Conservatory of Music, and a viola-performance diploma from the North Carolina School of the Arts.

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