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Anonymous Donor Funds Symposium to Revive Music of Earlier Era
Dr. Dennis Shrock, noted choral-scholar and author of several books on historic performance and repertoire, will be the guest conductor and featured lecturer for three annual music symposiums focusing on historical performances at the University of Mississippi. Funded by the generosity of an anonymous donor, the symposiums will begin in the summer of 2020. Shrock is shown during his most recent visit to UM in the fall of 2018 as a guest conductor and lecturer at a concert celebrating the late composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.

A Renaissance music renaissance is taking place at the University of Mississippi.

Thanks to a gift provided by an anonymous donor, a symposium in summer 2020 will bring the enchanting, but seldom-performed music of the Renaissance back to life with a four-day series of lectures and free concerts focusing on historical performances of music created by the era’s composers. Registration is already underway.

“When we host the symposium, ‘Performing Renaissance Music,’ it will be unlike anything that has ever taken place here or in the region,” said Donald Trott, UM director of choral activities and professor of music.

“What also makes this event exceptional is that Dr. Dennis Shrock, the foremost authority of historical performances of Renaissance music, will be our guest conductor at the concerts and featured lecturer for the symposium,” Trott said. “We are grateful for the generous donor who is making this possible.”

The event will be the first of three annual music symposiums held in consecutive summers at UM funded by the gift to the Office of Choral Activities, Trott said.

While the first symposium will feature music created and performed during the Renaissance era (1400 to 1600), the other two will focus on music of the Baroque-Classical period (1600 to 1800) and the Romantic era (1800 to 1900).

The inaugural symposium, set June 15-18, 2020, is designed to reestablish the beauty and significance of the value and reputation of the Renaissance music, which has unfairly faded with the passage of time, Shrock said.

“The historical symposium at Ole Miss intends to restore the music – to bring it back to life and to reveal its rich and sonic colors.”

Large sums of money are routinely spent on efforts to restore Renaissance paintings, sculptures and buildings, yet the music has either been ignored or not accurately presented, Shrock said.

“The symposium is an effort to bring attention to the music and its restoration, with the hope that the music will be seen – heard – as comparable in artistic stature to the other creative works of the time,” he said. “The music will be performed as originally intended and presented by high-caliber musicians, including Via Veritate, a 16-voice ensemble of the finest choral singers in the United States.”

The Renaissance-era music compositions will be presented for audiences at two free concerts on secular and sacred compositions. Held at UM’s Paris-Yates Chapel, the concerts will be conducted by Shrock and recorded for wider distribution.

A noted choral-scholar and the author of several books on historic performance and repertoire, Shrock has held faculty positions at Boston University, Westminster Choir College, the University of Oklahoma and Texas Christian University. He has had residencies at numerous other universities and frequently serves as a guest conductor and lecturer across the country.

He most recently appeared at Ole Miss in the fall of 2018 when he served as a guest conductor and lecturer as part of events celebrating what would have been the 100th birthday of world-renowned composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.

Shrock and Trott have worked together several times since they first became acquainted in 1975, when Trott was a student at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.

“Dr. Shrock was my professor when I met him as an undergraduate student, and he became my mentor and now is my great friend,” Trott said. “This symposium is an opportunity to work together on something we both love, and it is unique in that it will provide an intense academic program as well as performance instruction.”

Shrock said he is honored to be the main lecturer and conductor for the symposium.

“I’m especially pleased that Dr. Trott shares my passion and enthusiasm for performances based on historical information – performances that rely on documentation from the actual time frame in which the music was composed, and, by doing so, performances that represent the composers’ intents,” he said.

Choral musicians, university professors and high school teachers are encouraged to attend the symposium. In addition to learning about performing Renaissance music, high school instructors can earn continuing education units. Registration for the symposium is already underway, Trott said.

Ideally, those who attend the symposium will gain a new appreciation for Renaissance music, Shrock said.

“My hope is that they will sense that the music of the Renaissance is every bit as grand and glorious as the paintings of Leonardo and Botticelli, the sculptures of Michelangelo and the architecture of the Sistine Chapel and Florence Cathedral.”

For more information on supporting the symposium and other choral activities, contact Ron Wilson, development director, at 662-915-1755 or jrwilso3@olemiss.edu. Online gifts can be made at give.olemiss.edu.

By Jonathan Scott

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