Drake University offers orchestral opportunities for students with a wide range of musical backgrounds. Two ensemble options allow musicians to participate at a level that fits their experience and goals.
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Drake University offers orchestral opportunities for students with a wide range of musical backgrounds. Two ensemble options allow musicians to participate at a level that fits their experience and goals.
The Drake University Symphony Orchestra is open by audition to any qualified University student. The orchestra performs on campus four times per year. Concerts feature a wide variety of repertoire and include artist faculty soloists, as well as winners of the annual Drake Concerto Competition. Recent performances have included Beethoven Symphonies No. 5, 6, and 7; Brahms Symphonies No. 1 and 2; Dvorak Symphonies No. 8 and 9 ("From the New World"); Franck Symphony in d; Mendelssohn Symphonies No. 4 and 5; Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 ("Organ Symphony"); Schumann Symphonies No. 1 and 4; Tchaikovsky Symphonies No. 2 and 5. The orchestra's concerts are regularly broadcasted on Iowa Public Radio.
Every other year, the orchestra performs a full-staged opera in conjunction with the Drake Opera Theatre. Performances have included Mozart's Magic Flute, Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, and Haydn's La Cantarina. Additionally, the orchestra has been invited to perform with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra in a special anniversary celebration of the DMSO.
The Drake Concerto Competition is open to any student who studies with Drake Music faculty. Winners of the competition perform a concerto (shorter piece written for orchestra and solo instrument) or opera arias with the Symphony Orchestra at the spring concert.
In addition to the Symphony Orchestra, the Drake String Ensemble regularly performs off-campus throughout Des Moines and elsewhere as an outreach of the Department of Music. This ensemble is open to advanced string players. The Drake String Ensemble has done special performances, such as a benefit concert on the anniversary of the Japanese tsunami in order to raise funds for continued relief in Japan, Bach's Magnificat in D as part of a local arts series, and a tour of the Twin Cities with a performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
Conductor: Dr. Héctor Agüero, Director of Orchestral Studies