Read the full review on Front Row Center.

Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance has a robust, award-winning music program. Their excellence was well in evidence at Rose Hall on Sunday night April 16th, in a Classical- Jazz concert that featured the University’s Symphony Orchestra, Studio Orchestra, and Jazz Band. In addition, Temple’s Faculty Jazz Sextet performed, celebrating their new CD Fly With the Wind.

In a flurry of energetic percussion, daring brass and beguiling strings, the various ensembles shone, performing in several styles, from a pure classical sound, through old school jazz with its distinct texture and excitement, to brand new compositions that painted modern images with traditional sound.

José Luis Domínguez conducted the large Symphony Orchestra with precision and warmth. You could feel his commitment to the music and, thereby, to the students. He led the Studio Orchestra as it debuted Rainforests, by Bill Cunliffe, which featured the Faculty Sextet. Cunliffe celebrates the Earth’s lungs (as Rainforests are known to be) with big, melodic sound and daring rhythms, within which various instrumental voices spoke up, as the music built and retreated in waves. It was an excellent, upbeat choice to close the evening. The audience , many of whom were proud family members of the talented students onstage, responded in kind. Bravo!