“When we think of who we are and how we came to be, what comes to mind? … What do the stars and tectonic plates and fish that lived hundreds of millions of years ago have to do with us?” writes Anna Gustafson in Wednesday’s (7/18) Main Line Media News (Ardmore, PA). “These are the questions that are integral to the Main Line Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming Pennsylvania debut of the ‘Emergent Universe Oratorio,’ a cosmos-spanning musical production in which Vermont composer Sam Guarnaccia tells the story of the universe, from the Big Bang to present day. Set to take place [at Villanova University] on … July 28 … the oratorio will be directed by Don Liuzzi, the Main Line Symphony Orchestra’s music director and the principal timpanist with the Philadelphia Orchestra for the past 29 years. A dramatic mélange of orchestral music, singing and oration that … weaves together science, music and billions of years of history, the oratorio … will be performed as part of the International Big History Association’s four-day conference that will draw scholars from around the globe … July 26 to 29.” Vanessa Taylor, the Main Line Symphony’s president and longtime principal bassoonist, called it “a once-in-a-lifetime type of collaboration.”
Posted July 19, 2018
