On Monday, February 11, 2013, Orchestra Kentucky will present Carl Orff’s choral masterpiece, Carmina Burana. Joining the orchestra is the University of Louisville Collegiate Chorale, the Murray State University Concert Choir, and the boys choirs of Alvaton, Richardsville and Jody Richards elementary schools. Soloists for the evening are soprano Amy Maples, tenor Ross Hauck, and baritone Mark Womack. The concert will open with Richard Wagner’s prelude to his opera Die Meistersinger. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center. Prior to the concert, at 6:45 p.m. in the SKyPAC lobby, the Warren County Orff Ensemble will present a fifteen minute demonstration of Orff’s elementary music method.

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana. The first and last movements start with the very well known “O Fortuna,” which has been used in the films Excalibur and The Doors and on such varied television shows as The Simpsons and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The University of Louisville Collegiate Choir, under the direction of Dr. Kent Hatteberg, and the Murray State University Concert Choir, under the direction of Dr. Bradley Almquist, are the premiere choral ensembles of their respective universities. Chattanooga resident Amy Maples recently recorded with the Ohio Light Opera and was a 2012 regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Ross Hauck, of Seattle, WA, recently sung with the symphonies of Seattle, Kansas City, Phoenix, Chicago, and the National Symphony in Washington, DC. New Yorker Mark Womack has appeared at the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and with the Toronto, Seattle, and Indianapolis symphony orchestras.

The concert is sponsored by Dr. Patricia Mercer and is co-sponsored by Graves-Gilbert Clinic. The VIP Series sponsor is the Haskins Foundation.

For tickets, call (270) 846-2426 or visit www.OrchestraKentucky.com.