USU's Choirs Combine Shakespeare and Brahms in 'A Matter of Life and Death’

Utah State University’s Department of Music presents “A Matter of Life and Death” Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Performance Hall. The concert features the Women’s Choir and University Chorale.

“In loving we live; so living we must surely die. It’s ‘a matter of life and death’ —unavoidable, inevitable, universal,” said Michael D. Huff, professor and director of special programs in the Caine College of the Arts.

The concert focuses on confronting death from many points of view, said Huff.

The Women’s Choir will perform Four Pieces for Women’s Choir, Two Horns and Harp (Opus 17) by Johannes Brahms. This piece features poems inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, focusing on the death of a loved one, dying from unreachable love and the death of a loved hero.

Also featured in the concert is Brahms’s A German Requiem, performed by the University Chorale.

“‘Requiem’ is one of the most unique works in Western music to claim that title,” said Huff. “Rather than being a traditional mass for the dead as so many requiems are, this is a musical service for the living, offering words of comfort and hope drawn from Brahms’ Bible.”

Tickets for “A Matter of Life and Death” are $10 general admission, $8 seniors and youth, $5 USU faculty and staff and free for USU students with valid ID. For more information or tickets, visit the Caine College of the Arts Box Office in room 139B of the Chase Fine Arts Center, call 435-797-8022 or access the college’s Production Services website.

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Writer: Kara Rindlisbacher, 435-797-9203, kara.rindlisbacher@usu.edu

Contact: Denise Albiston, 435-797-1500, denise.albiston@usu.edu