Concert of the Century

This concert marks the beginning of a new era of the University Symphony Orchestra with the growth of the orchestra to the size that it is today with its capacity to play a huge work such as the Planets, by Gustav Holst.
The USO is truly the orchestra of the University of Alberta with members coming from all faculties as undergraduates and graduates in music, engineering, nursing, physiology, biochemistry, history, english, medicine, law and more. The USO is a magnet for students who have studied music all their younger lives and who wish to continue their high levels of playing into their tertiary and beyond studies.

The Planets are out of this world in their orchestral and musical grandeur. This work requires a huge orchestra with enormous wind and brass sections including 6 french horn players and 2 timpani players, and commensurate numbers of string players. We celebrate this opportunity to perform this work and are proud to be part of the University of Alberta's Centenary Celebrations with our performance in the Winspear Centre on Monday November 17, at 8pm.

But, not only do we perform The Planets, but we accompany our newly appointed voice professor, bass-baritone Brian McIntosh, opera singer par excellence, who is widely acclaimed in Canada and the USA, in famous heart wrenching arias from Verdi's operas Macbeth and Don Carlo, Massenet's Manon and Lortzing's Der Wildschutz.