Competition winners perform pieces by Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Kapustin & Ernest Bloch

The Cleveland State University Symphony Orchestra, directed by Victor Liva, will highlight the excellence of CSU’s music program in its annual solo concert Wednesday, April 17. The event will feature winners of the Department of Music’s student solo competition performing pieces by Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Kapustin and Ernest Bloch. The orchestra will also present a performance of Beethoven’s iconic Symphony no. 5, which will be guest conducted by Charles Carleton, a professor of music at CSU and string bassist for the Cleveland Orchestra.

The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Berkman Auditorium located in Ronald M. Berkman Hall on the CSU campus. It is free and open to the public.

“Our solo concert allows music students to showcase the incredible skill they have developed through their studies, while providing valuable performance experience that will be important as they begin the next phase of their musical journey,” Liva says.

Graduate music student and cellist Kathleen Monroe will perform Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, graduate student and pianist Charles Fernandes will perform Piano Concerto no. 2, by Nikolai Kapustin, and undergraduate student and violist Patrick Prejean will perform the Suite for Viola and Orchestra by Ernest Bloch.

The CSU Symphony Orchestra presents a wide ranging repertoire of classical and modern music and has performed and recorded with a number of leading orchestras, conductors and musicians. Its main goal is to provide high quality performance experience and Engaged Learning opportunities for CSU’s music students.