Food, intimate relations and music — three of the most important things in a college student's life. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra will get area college students to experience all three in an upcoming event that includes a jazz reception with free appetizers, speed dating for students, a prize package drawing and a concert.
MSO's performance, entitled "Mozart's Letters," involves a collection of letters that composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his family and friends, all set to his music.
The letters are meant to show how Mozart lived as a normal human being during the 18th century, said Evans Mirageas, artistic advisor to the MSO and host of the concert.
"This concert is basically a biography written through letters," Mirageas said. "What is special about Mozart is that he had extensive correspondence with the people that were close to him."
According to John Hancock, MSO vice president and chief operating officer, visualizations will be added to enhance the music.
"While the letters are being read, we will have a video running with portraits of Mozart and his family members so people can get a visual idea of who this man was," Hancock said.
Mirageas said college students should specifically be interested because they can easily relate to Mozart, even though he lived over 200 years ago.
Mozart "talks about girls he met, his concerts and the reactions of people to his concerts," he said. "(Mozart) had a dirty sense of humor and wrote dirty letters to his sister. Mozart lived. He was a regular guy and it shows the contrast between his humor and his genius."
"We delete e-mails everyday and don't think of saving them," Mirageas said, in reference to his feelings that society is in danger of not leaving evidence of thought. "People could be deleting messages very similar to Mozart's. Hopefully people who go to this concert will think differently of their correspondences."
Emanuel Ax, guest pianist, and Frank Almond, MSO Concertmaster, will be featured performers during the concert. Musical selections include the famous overture to "The Marriage of Figaro."
Tickets for Marquette students are $10 with a school I.D. as part of the "MSO Student Rush" program. The rush program is available to any student for any regular season concert held at the Marcus Center, one hour before concerts.
"Mozart's Letters" is the opening concert for the "Classical Connections" concert series, which is in its second season. The series is a contemporary way of performing concerts by adding video, special lighting, acting and other new elements to classical music, according to Mark Hanson, MSO president and executive director.
"We are trying to breathe new life into our classical repertoire to make our music more appealing to more people," Hanson said. "We also want to tell stories behind the music so people will hear the music in a different way."
Hanson encourages all students to see "Mozart's Letters" and concerts in other series including the "Milwaukee Symphony Classics," "Classical Connections" and the "Milwaukee Symphony Pops."
"We want (students) to try a concert in each of the series and then come back to the series that they prefer," Hanson said. "We're different from sporting events because people know what they are going to get, even though the outcome may be unexpected. At the MSO, nothing is ever the same."
The performance will take place Sept. 29 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, 929 N. Water St. Pre-concert events start at 5:30 p.m.
This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 22, 2005.