Copious Notes

The University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra rehearsed the UK Opera Theatre's production of Lucia di Lammermoor March 4, 2009 at the Lexington Opera House. Photos by Rich Copley.

Considering the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and Women’s Chorus’ recording of George Frederick Mckay’s Epoch: An American Dance Symphony came out five months ago, you’d think all the reviews would be in.

But orchestra director John Nardolillo, chorus director Lori Hetzel and the student musicians got a pleasant surprise late last week with yet another rave review, this one from Fanfare, one of the leading classical music publications.

John Nardolillo

“The performance by Nardolillo and his presumably student orchestra is first-rate,” wrote critic Ronald E. Grames. “If I had not known, I would have assumed both the orchestra and chorus to be professional.”

Grames also gave McKay’s piece a ringing endorsement.

“The fourth CD of McKay’s music, issued as part of Naxos’s American Classics label, is arguably the most important to date,” he writes. “Forgotten since its highly successful premiere, Epoch , An American Dance Symphony was conceived as an ambitious theater piece evoking, through music, vivid staging, and dance, the work of four American poets: Edgar Allen Poe, Sidney Lanier, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg.”

The album was recorded in the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall in 2007 and released on Naxos Records in September 2008.