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Barber’s first orchestral work, his “School” thesis

Barber’s first orchestral work, his “School” thesis

Join the Evanston Symphony Orchestra for a performance of the Overture to The School for Scandal by the twentieth century American composer Samuel Barber. Barber wrote his Overture to The School for Scandal, Op. 5, as a young student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He would travel to Europe in the summers to continue his studies with his Curtis composition teacher, Rosario Scalero. Barber composed Overture to The School for Sandal as his graduation thesis during one of these trips in the summer of 1931.

The Overture to The School for Scandal was Barber’s first work for orchestra and was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestrain 1933. That same year, Barber won the Joseph H. Bearns Prize from Columbia University for his Overture to The School for Scandal. The work helped bring Barber national attention and eventually became part of the standard orchestra repertoire. 

The School for Scandal was an eighteenth century comedy written by the Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In the play, Sheridan satirizes the behavior of the London upper class in the 1770s. Barber wrote only an overture for the play and tried to capture the play’s humorous character.

In addition to the Overture to The School for Scandal, the Evanston Symphony will be performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E Flat, “Eroica,” and Bruch’s Violin Concert No. 1 in G Minor with Chicago’s virtuoso violinist Sang Mee Lee. The performance will take place on Sunday, May 4 at 2:30 p.m. at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston.

Samuel Barber