November 2, 2005
Purdue Varsity Glee Club to sing at New York's Carnegie Hall
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. –Purdue Varsity Glee Club will perform a concert of popular World War II-era music with the New York Pops orchestra at New York City's famed Carnegie Hall as a tribute to the late Skitch Henderson.
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The group will perform at 8 p.m. on Nov. 11 in the Isaac Stern Auditorium under the leadership of Purdue Musical Organizations director Brian Breed. The program will be narrated by actor William Hurt.
Skitch Henderson, who died Nov. 2, founded the New York Pops, which is the largest independent symphonic pops orchestra in the United States and the only symphonic orchestra in New York City specializing in popular American music. Henderson was 87.
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"This concert will be a memorial of sorts to Skitch Henderson, who had an intimate perspective on the music we'll be performing because he was heavily involved in the war and in show business at the time it was written," said Breed, who also was a close professional friend of Henderson. "His family wanted the concert to go on because he would have wanted it that way, and we are honored to respect their wishes."
The program will include the "Airborne Symphony," written between 1943-44 for male choruses by American composer Marc Blitzstein. Commissioned by the United States Air Force, the large-scale choral piece garnered attention for the composer, who was presented with the 1946 Music Critics Circle Award and the Page One Award of the Newspaper Guild of New York. It was later recorded for RCA.
"This program, in a subtle way, is a biography of not only my life, but conceivably a portion of our audience," Henderson said before he died. "War has produced homage in word form and music form."
During World War II, Henderson flew for both the Royal Air Force and, after becoming an American citizen, the United States Army Air Corps.
Tickets for the performance ranges in price from $24 to $95. To order, call CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800 or go online.
Founded in 1893, the Purdue Varsity Glee Club is a university tradition. The ambassadors of song are guest artists in Carnegie Hall for the second time in the past three years. They represent Purdue on tour throughout the year around the country, including on national television, at five presidential inaugurations and at national and international performances and events.
Writer: Maggie Morris, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu
Sources: Brian Breed, (765) 494-3941, bdbreed@purdue.edu
Gwyn Zawisza, PMO spokesperson, (765) 496-6091, gzawisza@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
CAPTION:
Purdue Varsity Glee Club singers (left to right) Corey Lee, a sophomore in engineering from Indianapolis; Nicholas Clinkenbeard, a sophomore in engineering from Vincennes, Ind.; Justin Carter, a senior in electrical engineering technology from Carmel, Ind.; and John Kronberg, a senior in agriculture from Fort Wayne, Ind., serenade the audience at a recent concert. Accompanying them are PMO assistant director Jay Bailey on piano and drummer Jamie MacDougal, a junior in the College of Liberal Arts from Indianapolis. The Purdue Varsity Glee Club will perform a concert of popular World War II-era music with the New York Pops orchestra at New York City's famed Carnegie Hall on Nov. 11 in a program narrated by actor William Hurt.
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