Season Finale for the SSO
by Bailey Basham, Messenger Staff Writer
The Sewanee Symphony Orchestra (SSO) will celebrate its season finale on Wednesday, April 20 with “Goodbye for Now: a Sondheim Memorial,” a production dedicated to the late legendary composer Stephen Sondheim.
The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Guerry Auditorium, and repertoire will include “Send in the Clowns” and selections from Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” The symphony will be joined by vocal soloists Kerry Ginger, assistant professor of voice, and Erik Gustafson, instructor of voice.
Tiffany Lu, director of the SSO and visiting professor of orchestral conducting, said in addition to closing out the orchestra’s season, the finale concert will also pay homage to the late Sondheim.
“Sondheim was a giant of American composition, lyrics and theater music, and the final selection on our concert, ‘Goodbye for Now,’ is a poignant tribute to his contributions to our musical landscape today, as well as what we hope will be only a temporary farewell to seniors as they graduate and go on to do wonderful things in the world beyond the Domain,” Lu said.
In “Goodbye for Now: a Sondheim Memorial,” Ginger will perform a solo in “Send in the Clowns” from “A Little Night Music.”
“My first exposure to Sondheim was seeing a family member as ‘Rapunzel in Into The Woods.’ I also had friends get me into ‘Sweeney Todd and Company’ at various points in high school and college, but it really wasn’t until graduate school that I began to understand the extent of Sondheim’s work and to really see how perceptively he trained his eye on character,” Ginger said. “His death last November was a gut punch to so many theatergoers, musicians, directors and other creatives because of how very special his output has been.”
Ginger said she has long been a Sondheim fan and to take part in the SSO finale concert is her expression of gratitude for the composer and his work.
“Sondheim’s lyrics uniquely capture the complexity of his characters’ desires and objectives, and his music perfectly illustrates their inner emotions. Not a word or a note is wasted in Sondheim, nor does he spare any character from critique. He was a brilliant social satirist, but also wrote with great empathy and pathos. I hope our audience gets a sense of the variety and power of his works, from his incisive lyrics to his evocative musical soundscapes,” Ginger said.