Music

Guest conductor Jason Max Ferdinand leads a program that sees contemporary composers breathing new life into traditional melodies and texts. Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs blur the line between historic and contemporary. Originally written for baritone William Warfield and tenor Peter Pears, the Old American Songs dress traditional tunes in 20th-century clothing. Masterpieces by modernist Betty Jackson King and Renaissance man Thomas Tomkins meld with arresting contemporary gems by Ken Burton and Stacy Gibbs, sparkling against a backdrop of bedrock works by William Dawson, Moses Hogan, and Hal Johnson.

Within a serene candle-lit setting, the hustle and bustle of the holiday season will quiet and the a capella voices of Seraphic Fire will fill the room with musical peace and joy. Enjoy familiar favorites such as the hauntingly simple, yet lush Jesus Christ the Apple Tree and the enchanting Silent Night, and come away cherishing a newly discovered gem. Associate Conductor James K. Bass and the ensemble are pleased to present seasonal carols and heart-warming music in the 20th season of A Seraphic Fire Christmas.

To open its 20th Anniversary Season, Seraphic Fire explores the juxtaposition and intersection of love and war. Paul Crabtree’s When David Heard sets the tragic biblical love story of David sending his son Absalom to war in aching counterpoint with disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law’s exclamations upon meeting Catholic victims of abuse. Peace comes in human form in Ileana Perez Velazquez’s Tu Paz Mia, a Seraphic Fire-commissioned work. Selections from Claudio Monteverdi’s Madrigals of War and Love round out the program.

To open its 20th Anniversary Season, Seraphic Fire explores the juxtaposition and intersection of love and war. Paul Crabtree’s When David Heard sets the tragic biblical love story of David sending his son Absalom to war in aching counterpoint with disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law’s exclamations upon meeting Catholic victims of abuse. Peace comes in human form in Ileana Perez Velazquez’s Tu Paz Mia, a Seraphic Fire-commissioned work. Selections from Claudio Monteverdi’s Madrigals of War and Love round out the program.

Florida Grand Opera kicks off the 81st season with the FGO Studio First Sing. This is your FIRST opportunity to witness the incredible talents of the emerging artists in residency at Florida Grand Opera. During the 2022-2023 Season, the FGO Studio Artists will be featured in Domenico Cimarosa’s El matrimonio secreto, the double bill of Giacomo Pucchini’s Gianni Schicch, and Michael Ching’s Buoso’s Ghost, Giacomo Pucchini’s Tosca, and Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Join us at FGO's First Sing and hear excerpts from each of the operas this season. It’s also your first opportunity to hear this season’s Studio Artists.

With a commitment to cultivating a more curious and engaged society through music, the International Contemporary Ensemble – as a commissioner and performer at the highest level – amplifies creators whose work propels and challenges how music is made and experienced. Described as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), the Ensemble has become a leading force in new music throughout the last 20 years, having premiered over 1,000 works and having been a vehicle for the workshop and performance of thousands of works by student composers across the U.S including our own FIU students for this special collaboration.

Experience an All-Brahms chamber music program like you’ve never heard it before! Performed by world-renowned musicians including FIU 's Artist-in-Residence Ensemble, the Amernet String Quartet, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, pianist Anton Nel, and cellist Bion Tsang, this evening promises to be an inspirational combination of quartets, quintets, and sextets.

A featured star in the PBS documentary Pipe Dreams (2019), Alcee Chriss III is an organist and keyboardist from Fort Worth, TX. Dr. Chriss is the winner of the 2017 Canadian International Organ Competition and the Firmin Swinnen Silver Medal at the 2016 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition. He has been celebrated for his “grace, skill and abundant proficiency” by the Journal Assist News, Albuquerque. And of his most recent solo recording at Montreal Symphony Hall, Art et Rhapsodie (2019), the American Record Guide wrote that “he plays with clarity, imagination, musicality, virtuosity, and yes, personality.” Dr. Chriss has performed throughout North America and Europe. Recent and upcoming performances include the International Orgelsommer (Stuttgart, Germany), Stockholm City Hall (Sweden), and as soloist with the Montreal Symphony in a performance of Copland’s Symphony for Organ and Orchestra. Other engagements include the Princeton University Chapel, Spreckels Organ Pavilion and International Organ Summer Karlsruhe, Germany. In July 2022 he was a featured performer at the national convention of the American Guild of Organists, held in Seattle WA.

Grammy award-winning trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis is one of the top instrumentalists, composers and producers in jazz today. In January 2011, Delfeayo and the Marsalis family (father Ellis and brothers Branford, Wynton and Jason) earned the nation’s highest jazz honor, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award. For the opening night of the 2022 FIU Music Festival, he performs with the FIU Faculty Jazz Quintet and the students of the FIU Studio Jazz Big Band. This is one night you won't want to miss!