UK School of Music celebrates year-end performances featuring UK orchestra, choirs, wind ensembles

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 16, 2026) — The University of Kentucky School of Music will close its academic year in grand fashion with a Celebration Weekend at Singletary Center for the Arts. The weekend features award presentations, a landmark choral-orchestral concert commemorating the final concert for longtime choral activities director Jefferson Johnson, D.M.A., and a showcase of UK’s celebrated wind ensembles.

The weekend opens 5:15 p.m. Friday, April 24, with an awards ceremony recognizing outstanding students across the school’s degree programs.

At 7:30 p.m., the UK Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Nardolillo, will open with a performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 3. The UK Choirs will follow the orchestra for their season finale, Johannes Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem.” Johnson will conduct the orchestra and combined choirs, who will be joined by The Lexington Singers.

It’s no accident that Johnson has programmed “Ein Deutsches Requiem,” one of the most beloved monuments of the choral-orchestral repertoire, on multiple concerts in his time at UK. Among the many reasons he enjoys the piece is that it’s a good way to teach choral musicians about shaping long, expressive phrases.  

“It’s also unique in the genre of choral and orchestral repertoire: a requiem set not in the traditional Latin, but in Brahms’ German vernacular,” Johnson said. “He wanted to humanize it and make it personal. It is a requiem for the ‘living.’”

Johnson added that he has sentimental attachment to the work.

“The Brahms was the first choral/orchestral piece that I conducted at UK (in 1995) and it has always been my intention to make it my last,” he said. “I am grateful to my longtime colleague John Nardolillo for turning his orchestra over to me for this project.”

UK music alums Catherine Clarke Nardolillo, soprano, and Chris Burchett, baritone, will anchor the vocal solos in the requiem. Proceeds from the benefit concert will support scholarships for future UK music students.

The Celebration Weekend continues 3 p.m. April 26, with a performance by the UK Wind Symphony of “Corfu Festival,” featuring guest conductor Sokratis Anthis of Ionian University. The concert will also feature works by Percy Grainger, Leonard Bernstein, James M. Stephenson, William Schuman, Andreas Makris and Jason Dovel. The Awards Ceremony honoring band students follows immediately after the concert.

The weekend concludes beginning 7:30 p.m. with a joint concert titled “Imagine,” featuring the UK Symphony Band and UK Concert Band. The ensembles will perform works by composers that include David Biedenbender, Michael Colgrass, Eric Whitacre, W. Francis McBeth and Nicole Piunno.

For more information and to purchase tickets to one or more performances, visit finearts.uky.edu/music/events/school-music-celebration-weekend.