2008 - University of Massachusetts Amherst

alumnus & current students perform at pops gala
Baritone Andrew Garland ‘00, the UMass Amherst Pops Orchestra, Lanfranco Marcelletti,
Jr., director; the Studio Orchestra, Jeffrey W. Holmes, director and Pops Gala producer;
University Dancers, Billbob Brown, director; and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Catherine
Jensen-Hole, director, performed to a packed house on May 10. Each of the 344
available seats was spoken for in the Campus Center Auditorium for the 5th annual Gala.
Garland dazzled the audience with his flirtatious version of Largo al factotum (from The
Barber of Seville) by Rossini and his renditions of Prince Yeletski’s aria from Queen of
Spades by Tchaikovsky, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Soliloquy (from Carousel). The
Orchestra, which accompanied Garland, also performed Tchaikovsky’s Polonaise from
Eugene Onegin, Bizet’s Ouverture from L’Arlésienne: Suite No.1, and a medley from Hans
Zimmer’s Pirates of the Caribbean, arranged by Michael Brignolo ’09.
In June Garland won 2nd prize in the José Iturbi International Music Competition and the
prize for the best interpretation of a Spanish song. At UMass Amherst he studied with
Professor Emerita Paulina Stark, received an MM and an Artist’s Diploma in Opera from
the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and performed with the Cincinnati Opera,
Dayton Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and the Sorg Opera Company. His lead roles
include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Conte Almaviva in Le
Nozze di Figaro and Schaunard in La Bohème. In 2005, Garland debuted with the Marilyn
Horne Foundation.
A Beatles medley was played by the Studio Orchestra with the University Dancers performing to I Want You (She’s So Heavy),
choreographed by Professor Brown. Jeffrey W. Holmes did arrangements, orchestrations and sequencing for the medley, while Andrew
Smicker G’08 was responsible for the score and part realizations. In the final segment of the Gala, the University Dancers and the Vocal
Jazz Ensemble performed Marc Shaiman’s You Can’t Stop the Beat from Hairspray, arranged by Graduate student John Leonard, with
Billbob Brown playing the part of Edna Turnblatt.
Save the date for the 6th Annual Pops Gala on May 9, 2009.
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