Performing arts series with Syracuse Symphony kicks off with guests artists Rachel Lee and Eileen Strempel Oct. 13

Syracuse University’s Pulse performing arts series will present “Adventures in Great Music” with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and guest artists violinist Rachel Lee and soprano Eileen Strempel on Monday, Oct. 13. The concert, at 8 p.m. in the Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium located in Crouse College, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

Free parking is available in the Irving Garage. Patrons should alert the parking attendant that they are on campus for the Pulse-SSO concert. The concert is also supported by the 2008 Syracuse Symposium, a semester-long intellectual and artistic festival presented by SU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

The SSO, under the direction of Daniel Hege, will perform a program that includes Haydn, Copland, Bernstein, a performance of Libby Larsen’s “This Unbearable Stillness: Songs from the Balcony” (commissioned by Myma Root), and a world premiere of the orchestrated version of four songs (originally composed as a work for soprano and string quartet) adapted from the work of Arab poets Dima Hilal and Sekeena Shaben. The SSO, Central and Northern New York’s fully professional resident orchestra, performs 200 full-orchestra and chamber ensemble concerts throughout the region during its 39-week season.

At 19, Lee is regarded as one of the most prodigious and promising talents on the concert stage. Her recital debuts this season include engagements at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival, Verbier Festival and Moritzburg Festival. Lee began violin studies at age four and previously studied with the late Dorothy DeLay. At nine, she was the youngest musician selected to give a recital as part of the 1998 La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s Prodigy Series, where she was described by the San Diego Daily Transcript as “a violinist of utmost stature, a performer with maturity beyond her years.” Lee currently studies with Itzhak Perlman and attends Harvard University. She was previously at the pre-college division of the Julliard School.

Acclaimed soprano Eileen Strempel, currently associate dean of SU’s Graduate School, debuted with the New York Philharmonic on the orchestra’s Chamber Music Series; with the Bolshoi Opera as Violetta in “La Traviata”; and in Avery Fisher Hall as the soprano soloist in the Bach B minor Mass. She joined SU in 1998 after receiving her Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University. She is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, has won several international vocal competitions, and was named by the Syracuse Campus-Community Entrepreneurship Initiative (Enitiative) as an Enitiative eProfessor for 2007-09. A noted scholar of song literature, Strempel has written numerous articles and reviews, and is currently preparing her fifth disc of songs, featuring settings of Margaret Atwood poems composed expressly for her by several contemporary female composers.

Pulse, presented by SU’s Division of Student Affairs, provides SU undergraduates and, in turn, the Central New York community with out-of-classroom opportunities to attend and participate in programs, performances, exhibitions and events in the performing and visual arts. It is a model program recognized for quality, diversity, innovation and collaboration that celebrates and expands the cultural climate of SU by programming the best offerings of local arts organizations, paired with performances by internationally renowned visiting artists. The performing arts series seeks to raise the caliber of SU’s cultural programming while increasing the number of participating students. For more information, visit http://students.syr.edu/pulse.