Symphony Orchestra
The Mansfield University Symphony Orchestra - Dr. Jeffrey Jacobsen, Artistic Director and Conductor - is one of the premier performing ensembles at Mansfield University. The ensemble, open to anyone with previous advanced orchestral experience, is comprised of students from the music department and other departments throughout the university as well as community members. An audition process at the beginning of each semester is used to place musicians in appropriate seats within the orchestra. Orchestra performances are held on the MU campus each semester and a tour typically held during the fall semester for as many as three days takes the orchestra off campus for performances in high schools throughout Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. The Mansfield University Symphony Orchestra also sponsors the annual Student Solo Competition in the spring semester with the winners of the event featured as soloists with the orchestra on the final concert of the symphony season.
Each year the Mansfield University Symphony Orchestra spends up to four days recording repertoire performed during the year to be included on a promotional CD. The MUSO repertoire list is quite extensive and represents some of the finest orchestral compositions from all major musical periods and many of the world's greatest composers. The literature selected is designed to prepare each member of the orchestra for further opportunities in the orchestral music field whether that be as a performer in a professional ensemble, as a leader in the classroom, or in anticipation of advanced study at the graduate level.
Mansfield University Symphony Orchestra - Repertoire from 2008
Beethoven
Berlioz
Bernstein
Bizet
Borne
Brahms
Bruch
Coleridge Taylor
Copland
Creston
de Falla
Dell'Acqua
Donizetti
Doppler
Dvořák
Elgar
Ewazen
Fauré
Genin
Gershwin
Glinka
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Grieg
Haydn
Holst
Kalinnikov
Liebermann
Liszt
Mahler
Maroney
Mascagni
Massenet
Mayuzumi
Mendelssohn
Menotti
Milhaud
Moulds
Mozart
Nelson
Pakhmutova
Parker
Poncé
Prokofiev
Puccini
Rachmaninoff
Ravel
Riegger
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Rimsky-Korsakov
Rossini
Saint-Saëns
Schubert
Schumann
Shostakovich
Sibelius
Smetana
Stamitz
J Strauss, Jr
Strauss
Stravinsky
Tchaikovsky
Vaughan Williams
Verdi
von Weber
Wagner
Walton
Williams
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String Project @ Mansfield University
The String Project @ Mansfield University was created in 2010 by Dr. Jeffrey Jacobsen. The purpose of the String Project is to give community members an opportunity to learn to play string instruments (violin, viola, and cello) while giving music majors studying string education an opportunity to learn to teach under the supervision of an experienced educator; Dr. Jacobsen serves as the Master Teacher for the experience. The String Project @ Mansfield University currently has nearly 20 students of all ages and utilizes the talents of as many as 8 MU students as instructors and mentors. Group lessons are held on Saturday mornings and individual lessons are by arrangement with the student instructors. The String Project is sponsored by the university and costs are kept to a minimum, typically running $60 per semester for the group experience. Each semester the String Project holds a recital featuring the community students accompanied by the student instructors. Community members are also featured as soloists on the recitals and numerous small ensembles formed from the large group also perform.
In addition to teaching string instruments, several student instructors from the String Project offer additional Saturday classes in music theory and music history. Former student instructors from the String Project have gone on to successful teaching positions in string music education as well as taking graduate positions in universities specializing in string pedagogy and conducting.