Activities for 2008-2009

Last modified October 8, 2008

The Timmins-Gentry Music Society is both a social and an educational club that promotes the understanding and appreciation of classical music. It was founded in 1951 and is named in honor of John Timmins, VMI Class of '49, a lover of classical music who died in Korea in 1950, and Professor Emeritus Tom Gentry, VMI Class of '44, who was its faculty adviser and guiding spirit for 47 years. For a description of its general activities, click here.

This page contains information on the Society's current activities and events, primarily for its members. It is always under construction and is updated often, so members should check it regularly. To see last year's events and activities, click here.

Details of concert series at Washington & Lee and Garth Newel, as well as concerts at VMI, are posted on this page as they become available.

The Annual TGMS New York Trip

This year's trip to New York, which will take place March 26-29. At the Metropolitan Opera, we will hear the most famous pairing of one-act works in opera, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci by Pietro Mascagni, and Ruggero Leoncavallo respectively. The New York Philharmonic concert will be an all Handel program (for works, click here), featuring German soprano Christine Schäfer .

While in New York, you are required to see a musical or play and to spend at least one hour in a museum of your choice. For information on what plays are in New York, go to Playbill Online. For information on museums in New York, click here. For a subway map of New York, click here. This map has "mouseovers" that show you which trains go to each stop. Here also is a subway map in PDF format that you can save and print.

Musical Activities:

Attendance at all VMI concerts and at one performance in the W&L Concert Guild series is required of every cadet going to New York. Concert Guild tickets are paid for with Society dues, supplemented by the Timmins Fund. All members are particularly encouraged to attend the VMI concerts, which are free. Other concerts are sometimes listed here as potential TGMS field trips.

Concerts for 2008-2009
(W&L Concerts are in Lenfest Center at 8:00; VMI concerts are in Jackson Memorial Hall at 7:30)

W&L: Wednesday, October 8, 2008: Chanticleer will perform medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary a capella vocal music.

VMI: Wednesday, October 15, 2008: Victor Santiago Asunción, pianist, will perform the Chaconne in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach (arranged by Ferruccio Busoni), the Sonata in D Major (K. 576) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, "The Mephisto Waltz" by Franz Liszt, and three piano transcriptions by Liszt: "Widmung," by Robert Schumann, "Gretchen am Spinnrade" by Franz Schubert, and the Waltz from the opera Faust by Charles-François Gounod.

Garth Newel: Saturday, October 18, 7:00 p.m.: The Garth Newel Piano Quartet performs A Celebration of Robert Schumann.

W&L: Tuesday, October 21, 2008: The St. Lawrence String Quartet will perform works by Beethoven and Dvořák.

Garth Newel: Saturday, October 25, 7:00 p.m.: Andrés Díaz and the Garth Newel Chamber Players perform the Cello Quintet in C Major by Franz Schubert .

Garth Newel: Sunday, October 26, 3:00 p.m.: Andrés Díaz and the Garth Newel Chamber Players perform the Cello Quintet in C Major by Franz Schubert and the Sonata for Cello, Op. 8, by Zoltan Kodaly.

VMI: Wednesday, November 12, 2008: The Kandinsky Trio will perform a program TBA.

VMI: Spring Concerts at VMI by Teresa Ling, violinist, and by the Garth Newel Piano Quartet, dates and programs TBA.

W&L: Tuesday, February 10, 2009: Soprano Meagan Miller (W&L Class of '96) will perform a program TBA.

W&L: Tuesday, March 10, 2009: Pianist Valentina Lisitsa will perform works by Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff (or Rachmaninov).