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Show Two Prominent Utah Musicians Direct U S A C Production of Opera "Martha" I Professor W. H. Manning, acting act-ing head of the vocal music department, de-partment, and Trofessor N. W. Christiansen, head of the instrumental instru-mental music department will di- the chorus which accompanied the Zion Canyon Easter Pageant during dur-ing the several years of its presentation. pre-sentation. He has studied with (Continued on page Five) j rect the opera Martha to be presented pre-sented at the Utah State Agricultural Agricul-tural college prily 20, 21 and 22. Production jf a grand opera is an annual highlight of music ac-, ac-, tivities at the college. An 80-voice 80-voice chorus will form the background back-ground for the four act opera while Professor Christiansen will direct a 30-piece orchestra. Martha Mar-tha will be produced with two separate casts cf principals. Prior to accepting a position at : USAC last . fall, Professor Manning Man-ning was head of the vocal music department at Branch Agricultural Agricultur-al college for 19 years. . During that time he built an opera season sea-son in southern Utah which gained prominence throughout the west. Training all soloists Professor Manning produced the "Messiah" 24 times during the 19 years. He also presented two other oratories, orator-ies, "Elijah" by Mendelssohn, and the "Creation" by Haydn. Professor Profes-sor Manning is director of Cedar city choral society and trained I if? v N. W. CHRISTIANSEN I W. H. MANNING Brcckway. He was awarded a teacher's certificate there. Professor Profes-sor Christiansen obtained his MS degree at Columbia University in New York city and completed all residence work at Columbia for a doctorate. He was on the teaching staff at Teachers' college in the summer of 1942. A veteran director of many operas. op-eras. Professor Christiansen produced pro-duced six operas at South Cache high school and directed Faust at USAC in 1933. In cooperation with the director of vocal music at USAC, he has produced all other operas at the college since 1932. Among the productions were Rig-oletto, Rig-oletto, II Trovatore, La Trafiata, Aida, Carmen, Blossom Time and the Student Prince. He has directed the college band on eight annual tcurs and the concert band when it appeared through invitation at Music Edu-cators Edu-cators Conference at Los Ang-leles Ang-leles in 1940. He is a member of the American Amer-ican Bandmasters association, president of Music Education club at Teachers' College, Columbia University in 1940-41. Two Prominent Musicians Direct College Opera (Continued from page One) Herbert Witherspoon, Oscar Saen-ger, Saen-ger, Florence Hinckel, and has been connected with the Dunbar Production company and Home of American Light Opera companies. During his teaching crreer, he has prepared and directed over 100 performances of such operas as Carmen, Trovatore, Faust, Bartered Bar-tered Bride and Rigoletto and many light operas and musical comedies. The first all state opera to be produced in any state was directed by Professor Manning in Wisconsin in 1937. In 1940 he produced the Wisconsin statte opera with three, separate cast3 of 'principals. Professor N. W. Christiansen, distinguished violinist and prominent prom-inent Utah musician, is a graduate gradu-ate of Snow college and a former student of Unversity of Utah and USAC where he obtained his BS degree. He has been a student at Sterns conservatory in Berlin where he studied violin with Max Rostal and composition with Wil- helm Klatte. ; Professor Christiansen while studying at the Juilliard school : of music in New York city studied stud-ied violin with Sascha Jacobsen and theory of compostion with George Wedge and Howard |