ANN ARBOR, MI - The nation's only Life Sciences Orchestra, composed of members of the University of Michigan's medical, health and life science community, will kick off its fifth season in January with a concert of Mozart and Mahler.

The free concert will begin at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 15 at Hill Auditorium, and will be introduced by U-M Medical School Dean Allen S. Lichter, M.D.

It will be the first concert under the baton of new LSO music director John Goodell, a graduate of the noted orchestral conducting program at the U-M School of Music.

The concert will open with the Symphony No. 29 in A Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written in 1774 when Mozart was just 18 years old. The second half of the program will be the Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” by Gustav Mahler, composed in 1888.

Coincidentally, this performance of the “Titan” symphony will come on the day after a joint American-European space mission hopes to land a probe on Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn.

The concert is free and open to the general public. For more information, visit www.umich.edu/~lsorch, e-mail orchestra@umich.edu, or call (734) 936-ARTS.

The LSO was founded in the spirit of the U-M's Life Sciences Initiative, which seeks to encourage scientists and health professionals to work together, surmounting the traditional boundaries between academic disciplines and units in the basic sciences, health sciences, health care, engineering, social science, and the humanities.

The LSO brings together faculty, staff, students, volunteers and alumni from the medical, health and life sciences areas of the University, giving them an outlet for their musical talents and a chance to interact with one another across academic boundaries.

Members include doctors and research scientists, medical students and residents, hospital staff, nurses, public health specialists, bioengineers, pharmacists, dentists, research assistants and family members of U-M life science community members.

Founded by students and staff from the U-M Health System, the LSO is a key part of the UMHS Gifts of Art program. The orchestra made its debut in January 2001 at the Michigan Theater, and performs each year in mid-winter and spring.

Written by Kara Gavin

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