The spirit of the holidays will rise to the rafters of Hodgson Concert Hall when the finest musicians at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music—including the UGA Symphony Orchestra (UGASO), Combined Choirs, British Brass Band and more—take to the stage for the annual UGA Holiday Concerts on Dec. 1 and 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Kenyan teenagers who had previously only known Athens, Georgia, through the computer screens they use to receive music lessons from Hugh Hodgson School of Music graduate students are currently on a tour of the Classic City and the Peach State.

Until Nov. 30, a dozen students from Moi Girls’ High School in Eldoret, Kenya, will visit, study and vacation in Athens, Atlanta and Savannah, as part of their ongoing relationship with the Hodgson School.

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music is no stranger to acclaimed international guests, but even for them, it’s rare they host an artist who has led an entire country’s military bands.

Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, former chief conductor and Senior Director of Music of the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of Russia, will visit the University of Georgia from Nov. 8 – 16, sitting in on classes, working with students, conducting ensemble performances and taking in the Classic City.

The Hodgson Wind Ensemble (HWE) welcomes guests from as near as the Hugh Hodgson School of Music and as far as Moscow for their final concert of 2016 in Hodgson Concert Hall on Tuesday, November 15, at 8 p.m.

The Hodgson School’s premier wind ensemble will feature Pulitzer Prize winner Melinda Wagner, professor of tuba and euphonium David Zerkel and internationally-renowned Russian conductor and composer Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov.

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s associate professor of viola will demonstrate the range of her instrument in a faculty recital in Ramsey Concert Hall on Tuesday, November 15, at 6 p.m.

Maggie Snyder, with and without an ensemble, is set to perform a program that highlights the versatility of the viola.

“The first half of this concert will be a preview for some of the repertoire for solo viola that I will include on my upcoming CD, ‘Viola Alone: Old, New, and Borrowed,’” said Snyder.

The UGA Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by a special, international guest in its November concert in Hodgson Concert Hall on Thursday, November 10, at 8 p.m.

Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, former chief conductor and Senior Director of Music of the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of Russia, will conduct the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s premier orchestral ensemble as part of an extended visit to the University.

The UGA Hodgson Singers’ fall concert will employ a variety of styles to showcase the abilities of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s premier choral ensemble in Hodgson Concert Hall on Friday, November 11, at 8 p.m.

“I’m really excited about the concert,” said Dan Bara, director of the Hodgson Singers. “The choir is sounding excellent this year.”

 

The program will open with a set of four Latin motets on nativity and holy week themes from the baroque and 21st centuries.  

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s jazz ensembles will perform their fall concert, featuring a unique appearance from a faculty soloist, in Ramsey Concert Hall on Thursday, November 10, at 6 p.m. 

The program begins with Jazz Ensemble II, the Hodgson School’s introductory level jazz ensemble, playing a mix of jazz styles from composers including Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

The City of Light and the Classic City become one when the Thursday Scholarship Series’ November concert, “An Evening in Paris,” comes to Hodgson Concert Hall at the UGA Performing Arts Center on Thursday, November 3, at 7:30 p.m.

 

The performance, the fourth in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s flagship concert series, includes works from Paris in the ‘20s and ‘30s, a vibrant era of collaboration and innovation.

 

Classics of 19th century Russian music are the centerpiece of “Music from the Golden Age of Russian Culture,” a special Hugh Hodgson School of Music concert in Ramsey Concert Hall on Tuesday, October 25, at 8 p.m. 

Inspired by the “Gifts and Prayers: The Romanovs and Their Subjects” exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA), this concert focuses on Russian music from that same period, examining another side of art from the era of Romanov rule.