College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom
University of Dayton ‘Celebration of the Arts’ event returns to Schuster Center after 2-year absence
By Julia Randel
For the first time since 2019, University of Dayton students will perform for the Dayton and campus communities at the Schuster Performing Arts Center in downtown Dayton.
Celebration of the Arts, a showcase of music, dance and theater, is 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3. The event is free and open to the public.
Nearly 200 UD students from the Department of Music, the Theatre, Dance and Performance Technology program and from across the University will participate in this diverse and lively program. It includes choral, jazz, gospel and electronic music, as well as Javanese gamelan, classic musical theater and modern dance.
The event gives students the opportunity to perform on a professional concert stage and to share their artistic accomplishments with the Dayton community. Since 2020, these opportunities have been limited by COVID-19 safety protocols.
The program includes the Symphonic Wind Ensemble performing J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d minor and the University Orchestra performing the last movement of Tchaikovsky’s second symphony.
The University Chorale, which performed virtually this month at the Ohio Music Education Association’s annual professional development conference, will sing selections that highlight music and poetry by African Americans.
Audience members will get a sneak preview of the University’s upcoming production of The Sound of Music, April 8-9 in the Boll Theatre on campus.
The University Dance Ensemble, in collaboration with the UD Digit electronic music ensemble, will perform the world premiere of Unclose Your Eyes, which was accepted for performance at the OhioDance Festival in Columbus on April 29.
The World Music Choir and the Javanese Gamelan Ensemble will take the audience around the world with a Bolivian folk song, a piece for Indonesian percussion and a joint performance of the African-American spiritual All Night, All Day. The program closes with gospel music from the Ebony Heritage Singers and big band selections by the University Jazz Band.
In November, the University broke ground on the Roger Glass Center for the Arts, a new, on-campus arts facility named for local entrepreneur and philanthropist Roger Glass ‘67, president and CEO of Marion’s Piazza. Located at the corner of Main and Stewart streets, the arts center will house a 400-seat concert hall, an experimental theater, an art gallery, and a media suite with radio and television studios. The facility is expected to open in late 2023.
Celebration of the Arts tickets are free and at daytonlive.org and at the Kennedy Union box office on campus. The Schuster Center requires masks for patrons age 6 and older.
Additional Celebration of the Arts events continue on campus throughout the 2022 spring semester with Dancing in the Light, The Sound of Music, the Horvath Exhibition, and more ensemble concerts and student recitals. For more information visit go.udayton.edu/arts.
Julia Randel is associate professor and chair of the Department of Music.