Hill Auditorium
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s
A Sea Symphony
Individual event tickets available 7/28
English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his Sea Symphony over a seven-year period in the first decade of the 20th century. Inspired by the sea poems from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Vaughan Williams transforms Whitman’s ecstatic verse into music of sweeping grandeur and intimate reflection, a meditation on setting forth into the unknown with courage and hope.
Paired with this transcendent work is Vaughan Williams’s luminous Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, a one-movement work composed for double string orchestra and solo string quartet. Vaughan Williams had come across Tallis’s 16th-century tune while editing the English Hymnal, and the serene and spiritual work remains one of his most beloved compositions to this day.
Neither of these works has been performed on a UMS program in over 50 years, providing an opportunity to rediscover one of the most innovative and creative figures in 20th-century music. Conductor Scott Hanoian takes the podium after his celebrated interpretation of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky in 2025.
PROGRAM (Sat 2/13/2027: Hill Auditorium)
Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Ralph Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony
Buy Tickets
Ralph Vaughan Williams’s
A Sea Symphony
Hill Auditorium
Season ticket packages on sale now!
Individual event tickets available 7/28
CHOOSE A PERFORMANCE:
Or call the ticket office at 734-764-2538
* Student, Senior and Group Discounts may be available
Contact Info
scottph@umich.edu
About Scott
Scott Hanoian is the Music Director and Conductor of the University Musical Society Choral Union where he conducts and prepares the Grammy Award-winning chorus in performances with the world’s finest orchestras and conductors. Choruses prepared by Mr. Hanoian have sung under the batons of Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Leonard Slatkin, Ivan Fischer, Dennis Russell Davies, and Osmo Vänskä.
Mr. Hanoian is active as a conductor, organist, lecturer, continuo artist, accompanist, choral adjudicator, and guest clinician. He is the Director of Music and Organist at Christ Church Grosse Pointe, where he directs the church’s four choirs and oversees the yearly concert series. Mr. Hanoian has served on the faculty of Wayne State University and Oakland University and was the artistic director and conductor of the Oakland Choral Society from 2013–2015.
As an organist and conductor, Mr. Hanoian has performed concerts throughout the US and has led choirs on trips to Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, France, and Spain. Most recently, Mr. Hanoian led the Christ Church Choirs during weeklong residencies at York Minster, Durham Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Wells Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey.
Before moving to Grosse Pointe, Mr. Hanoian was the Assistant Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Washington National Cathedral where he played the organ for many services including the funerals for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.
Mr. Hanoian has recorded the complete organ works of Johannes Brahms for the JAV label.
Soprano Christine Goerke has appeared in the major opera houses of the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala, Maggio Musical Fiorentino, Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, and the Saito Kinen Festival. She has sung much of the great soprano repertoire, starting with the Mozart and Handel heroines and now earning critical acclaim for the dramatic Strauss and Wagner roles.
Learn more at christinegoerke.com
The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance announced that Goerke will join the Department of Voice & Opera as an assistant professor in August 2026.
American baritone Norman Garrett, who has been called “scene-stealing” by The New York Times, is enjoying a varied and exciting career. In the 2025/26 season, Mr. Garrett will sing the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth with Boston Lyric Opera, Scarpia in Tosca with Des Moines Metro Opera, Jim in Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera, Crown in Porgy and Bess with Lyric Opera Kansas City, and the Marquis de la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites with New Orleans Opera. In concert, he sings Carlisle Floyd’s Pilgrimage with Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Martinů’s Epic of Gilgamesh with Bard SummerScape.
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