The renowned faculty and skilled students of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Music will perform a showcase of music for the public Monday, April 1.
The PRISM concert features soloists and ensembles, choirs, bands and pianists, performing music from classical, gospel and jazz to world music, electronic and more. Highlights for this fast-paced concert will include brass fanfare, a piece for eight hands and two pianos, multimedia computer music with video, and a Barnum and Bailey march.
PRISM is set for 7 p.m. Monday, April 1, in UAB’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, Jemison Concert Hall. Tickets are $25, $15 for UAB employees and free for all students with ID. Tickets may be purchased at AlysStephens.org, in person at the Alys Stephens Center Box Office or by calling 205-975-2787.
The Department of Music, in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, has distinguished itself as one of the finest centers for educating young musicians in the Southeast. The PRISM concert offers audiences a sampler of all the music being made within the department, which features more than 20 faculty and nearly two dozen adjunct faculty. Nearly 300 students make up the Department of Music ensembles, with majors ranging from music to almost every undergraduate program on campus.
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“When we originally established PRISM in 2018, we wanted to increase the visibility of the Department of Music’s faculty and student performances, as we produce more than 60 concerts per academic year, and many people across UAB were unaware of that aspect of our work together,” said UAB Department of Music Chair Patrick Evans, D.M. “With staunch support from the president, provost, vice presidents and our dean, PRISM has become an annual celebration of a wide range of musical styles, with even more inventive programming from our faculty and students.”
On the program this year are musical selections from as diverse creators as Baroque composer J.S. Bach to Emily Zhang, a music technology major and oboist, who created a multimedia piece in UAB’s Computer Music Ensemble.
Composer and UAB Professor William Price, DMA, will offer a scherzo for solo piano played by Distinguished Professor of Music Yakov Kasman, DMA. Hear a world premiere performance in an excerpt from “The Courage Lies Within You,” a multimedia piece commissioned by the UAB Chamber Trio (James Zingara, DMA, trumpet; Denise Gainey, DMA, clarinet; and Chris Steele, DMA, piano), who are joined by soprano Meg Jackson, D.M., and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Fisher, DMA. In “The Courage Lies Within You,” individual movements are dedicated in honor of several important Alabamians. The performance is interspersed with films created by UAB students, curated by Michele Forman, assistant professor in the Department of History and director of the UAB Media Studies program. In a much-beloved tradition, the evening concludes with all faculty, students and audience members singing and playing the UAB alma mater.