Oct 19, 2026 · 21 min · 9 segments
Join Alessia, Francesca, and Megan for a stroll through this week's Collegian.
I'm Megan and I'll be asking our lovely co-host and opinions editor Francesca Cella about an orchestra concert that just happened last Sunday over homecoming weekend.
This concert was the first time that the orchestras performed under the new director of Sacred Music and associate professor of music, Dr. Timothy McDonald, as their conductor.
And it's also the first time that we've had these two orchestras perform together.
And I think something unique about this performance as well, obviously, it's the first time that it's been the 250th anniversary of America.
But I also think it's one of the only times that we've done a totally American concert.
Normally, there are concerts where we'll have a few pieces that are... written by American composers.
But frankly, there just aren't as many orchestral pieces that are written by Americans.
And so I think they had to look a little farther and wider to pull these together and find a good variety of music that you would want to put into a concert.
I think Dr. McDonald was going, like starting to form this program as far back as the spring and listening to all the soundtracks so he'd be prepared to conduct So a lot of work went into forming this program.
And I think partly just because it's not common to have a fully American concert for an orchestra.
They opened with a American Salute composed by Morton Gold, followed by American Nocturne by Dana Seuss.
And then there was a jazz pantomime called Crazy Cat Jazz Pantomime composed by John Alden Carpenter.
So it was a very interesting musical display because there were lines from the comic strip that were read aloud by assistant professor of education, Timothy Green.
So he would read those and then the orchestra would play a short bit of music that went along with those lines.
As you're looking at the program, you can see the comic and then you're hearing Professor Green read aloud the narration.
And then you can hear the music kind of displaying what the comic is supposed to be talking about.
I'm Megan and I'll be asking our lovely co-host and opinions editor Francesca Cella about an orchestra concert that just happened last Sunday over homecoming weekend.
This concert was the first time that the orchestras performed under the new director of Sacred Music and associate professor of music, Dr. Timothy McDonald, as their conductor.
And it's also the first time that we've had these two orchestras perform together.
And I think something unique about this performance as well, obviously, it's the first time that it's been the 250th anniversary of America.
But I also think it's one of the only times that we've done a totally American concert.
Normally, there are concerts where we'll have a few pieces that are... written by American composers.
But frankly, there just aren't as many orchestral pieces that are written by Americans.
And so I think they had to look a little farther and wider to pull these together and find a good variety of music that you would want to put into a concert.
I think Dr. McDonald was going, like starting to form this program as far back as the spring and listening to all the soundtracks so he'd be prepared to conduct So a lot of work went into forming this program.
And I think partly just because it's not common to have a fully American concert for an orchestra.
They opened with a American Salute composed by Morton Gold, followed by American Nocturne by Dana Seuss.
And then there was a jazz pantomime called Crazy Cat Jazz Pantomime composed by John Alden Carpenter.
So it was a very interesting musical display because there were lines from the comic strip that were read aloud by assistant professor of education, Timothy Green.
So he would read those and then the orchestra would play a short bit of music that went along with those lines.
As you're looking at the program, you can see the comic and then you're hearing Professor Green read aloud the narration.
And then you can hear the music kind of displaying what the comic is supposed to be talking about.
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