KINGSTON, R.I. – April 9, 2025 – As the spring semester winds down, the University of Rhode Island’s Music Department is ramping up, closing out the school year with concerts nearly every day or night in April. 

It’s a lineup that includes everything from student recitals and small ensembles to performances by the Jazz Big Band, Wind Ensemble and University Chorus to even a full-length opera and the premiere of a soundtrack to an Alfred Hitchcock silent film. For a full lineup of concerts and ticket prices – many of the performances are free – go to the Music Department’s events listings.

On Friday, April 11, the University Artist Series presents Hitchcock’s 1927 masterpiece “The Lodger – a Story of the London Fog,” featuring world-class artists performing an original score created in 2015 by composer Joe Williams. The music and film start at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall at the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston.

“Joe Williams has been a long-time friend and someone whose work I admire so much,” said URI Assistant Teaching Professor of Classical Guitar Adam Levin, who organized the screening. “I heard Texas Guitar Quartet perform excerpts of ‘The Lodger’ and I was immediately drawn to Joe’s colorful and wildly virtuosic score, which deeply connects to the tremendous dramatic world that Hitchcock creates.”

Hitchcock’s first thriller, “The Lodger” is the story of the hunt for a Jack the Ripper-like killer in London. Levin and his chamber music group The Great Necks Guitar Trio, who first performed the score in 2022, will perform alongside classical guitarist Jeremy Mayne and cellist Michael Shein, a URI artist/teacher. “I performed the score in Atlanta with The Great Necks and knew immediately that I needed to bring it to Rhode Island,” said Levin. “I love the interdisciplinary aspect of this project, which includes film, music performance, and composition.”

While at URI, Williams will give a masterclass for composition students and coach the URI Guitar Ensemble on a piece he composed, “The Bear.” Also Scott Borg and Matthew Rohde of The Great Necks and Mayne will give a masterclass to members of the URI classical guitar studio on April 12 at 10 a.m. in the Music Annex Building that is open to the public.

URI’s Opera Workshop, directed by Devon Russo, combines forces with the Concert Choir and Symphony Orchestra in staging “Scenes from Goethe’s Faust,” on Saturday, April 26, at 7 p.m. in the Concert Hall, with an encore performance Monday, April 28, at 7 p.m. The production is the U.S. premiere of a staged version of the musical-theatrical work by 19th-century composer Robert Schumann, which is based on the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

“I find Romantic era music connects a lot deeper than it did 10 or 15 years ago,” said Russo, URI artist and teacher of voice. “During that period, they were dealing with the Industrial Revolution and I think we’re entering an AI-fueled era of rapid change. The music connects with our era in a different way.”

The ambitious production will include full costumes – designed by Aaron Blank with pieces selected from the Chorus of Westerly and Trinity Repertory’s costume warehouse – and sets built and designed by Russo, a doctor of musical arts who is using the production as part of his research. Along with the URI Concert Choir and Orchestra – directed by Mark Conley and Luis Viquez, respectively – the Bryant Singers will take part in the project, said Russo, who is also the director of choral activities at Bryant University.

The Opera Workshop, a class for students seeking experience performing operatic repertoire onstage, puts on a production each spring. “Faust is our first full production in a foreign language and with a full orchestra,” said Russo, in his second year directing the workshop. “It is important for me to provide students with as many chances to feel the full arc of a full show as possible.”

Other April concerts include:

On Thursday, April 24, the Jazz Big Band, under the direction of Emmett Goods, will perform a set of standards by such jazz greats as Charles Mingus and John Coltrane. The concert is at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall.  

The Wind Ensemble and Concert Band will perform in separate concerts on Friday, April 25, in the Concert Hall, at 7:30 p.m., presenting a variety of classic and contemporary works, said Brian Cardany, director of both ensembles.

The 37-member Wind Ensemble will open the concert with a pair of works by Alfred Reed, the energetic classic “Hounds of Spring” and “Rahoon,” with the second composition featuring URI director of the orchestral activities Luis Viquez, on clarinet. The ensemble will also perform Michael Gandolfi’s “Vientos y Tangos” and Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque,” before closing with Nancy Galbraith’s “Danza de los Duendes.”

The 42-member Concert Band will perform several works inspired by cultures – Soichi Konagaya’s “Japanese Tune,” “Spring Festival” by Chen Yi, and Robert W. Smith’s “Africa” – along with Symphony No. 4 by Andrew Boysen Jr., and Robert Sheldon’s “A Longford Legend.”

On Sunday, April 27, the University Chorus will present “The Long and Winding Road,” which will include works by Renaissance composer Palestrina, songs from the Gospel and Sacred Harp traditions, and music by contemporary composers Stephen Paulus, Donna Rhodenizer, and Reginald Wright. The concert starts at 3 p.m. in the Concert Hall.

“The concert features songs that highlight the complex journey we all find ourselves experiencing in our lives–the joy, the sorrow, the movement, the stillness,” said Elizabeth Woodhouse, director of the 56-member chorus.

Visit URI’s Music Department for a full listing of all upcoming performances and events.