P R O G R A M N O T E SFRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2016 | 7:30 P.M. | LIED CENTER OF KANSAS

KU SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - RAFFAELE CIPRIANO, CONDUCTOR

Overture to La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) Gioacchino Rossini(1792-1868)

Le carnaval des animaux (Carnival of the Animals) Camille Saint-SaënsIntro & Royal March of the Lion (1835-1921)Hens and RoostersWild Donkeys – Fleet AnimalsTortoisesL’éléphantKangaroosAquariumPeople with long earsCuckoo in the Depths of the WoodsAviaryPianistsFossilsThe SwanFinale

Sunjung Lee and Taeri Lee, piano

Les Toréadors from Carmen Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

COSTUME PARADE

Flight of the bumblebee from Tale of the Tsar Saltan Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

Overture to The Wasps: Aristophanic Suite Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

COSTUME AWARDS

Duetto buffo di due gatti (Cats’ Duet) Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

arr. Raffaele Cipriano

Michaela Mack, soprano and Brian Sussman, tenor

Hoe-Down from Rodeo Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Finale from Swan Lake Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Dancers from the University Dance Company

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

RAFFAELE CIPRIANORaffaele Cipriano is an Italian conductor, composer, and pianist, as well as a computer scientist. He earned his bachelor’s degrees in piano performance and in orchestral conducting at the Conservatories of Padova and Venice, studying with Romano Zancan (piano) and Michael Summers (conducting). He also studied with Romolo Gessi at the European Academy of Conducting in Vicenza. He worked and studied as an opera accompanist, obtaining a Master of Music in collaborative piano - opera coaching in Padova, with Edoardo Lanza. He studied composition with Giovanni Bonato and has been his assistant for several years, focusing on ancient and contemporary polychoral works for spatialized choirs.

Cipriano has been active in the Veneto area as conductor of the G.E.S. Male and Youth choirs, the Padovensemble Lyric Group, and the Orchestra Sperimentale. He has conducted in important venues of that region, such as the Olimpic Theatre in Vicenza, the Pollini Auditorium in Padova, and the St. Mark Cathedral in Venice. In 2012 he wrote the short opera Cecè, based on a play by the Italian Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello. The opera has been performed in Venice and in Padova, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from both the audience and the artists. In the summer of 2015, he was vocal coach and music conductor for the opera Prima la musica, poi le parole by Antonio Salieri, at the International Chamber Music Festival in Lapedona, Italy.

In 2015 Cipriano started the DMA program in orchestral conducting at the University of Kansas, under the supervision of Professor David Neely. During the spring semester he worked as Italian diction coach and assistant conductor for the KU production of The Marriage of Figaro. In the spring of 2016 he conducted several productions in Lawrence: the ballet Peter and the Wolf for the Lawrence Art Center, the comic opera Mr. Petitpois Buys a Castle by Germain Tailleferre at the Swarthout Recital Hall, and the KU production of the musical Little Women at the Crafton-Preyer Theatre. In the spring of 2017 he will be diction coach and assistant conductor for the KU production of Don Giovanni.

Mr. Cipriano also has an academic background in information technology, with a PhD in computer science earned at the University of Udine and 5 months of post-doctoral research on artificial intelligence at New Mexico State University in 2010. He is currently working on web-based interactive projects with the aim of bringing state-of-the-art technology into the music world, both in the learning and performing processes.