Under the leadership of Music Director Luis Biava, the Temple University Symphony Orchestra is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students who study and perform a full range or orchestral works. Students also perform with Temple’s Opera Theater and the Department of Choral Activities in major performances on and off campus. Orchestra alumni hold positions with many renowned orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras, the Dallas, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Houston, Cincinnati and Hungarian Symphonies, the Hong Kong, Israel, Malaysia and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras, the Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit and National Symphony Orchestras and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The overture is in one of Beethoven’s “special” keys, c minor. It was his key for struggle and pathos and is found in early string quartets and other chamber music, Symphony No. 5, and in the Funeral March of Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”). A piano sonata in c minor, Op. 13, was even designated “Pathétique” by the composer. Works in c minor (along with f minor) embody some of Beethoven’s stormiest music meteorologically but more significantly, psychologically. Some works in c minor end tragically; others move from seemingly overwhelming obstacles to triumph, a Beethovenian theme, usually achieved by a metamorphosis from minor to major mode, along with concomitant changes in tempo, rhythm, and orchestration. Photo: Jeff Fusco Notes by Stephen Willier, Associate Professor, Boyer College of Music and Dance