CHAMPAIGN, Illinois – Fans of Mozart’s music will hear some of his best-known works as well as less familiar pieces during a Mozart birthday celebration by the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra.

Conductor Donald Schleicher scheduled the concert for January 27, Mozart’s birthday, at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Mozart birthday parties featuring the composer’s music are common around the world, he said.

Schleicher wanted to include not only the standards, but also a few more unusual pieces to show the wide range of Mozart’s work. He also wanted to include as many faculty members from U. of I. School of Music as possible.

“It’s a unique chance to hear so many faculty members from the School of Music on the same night,” he said.

The concert will open with one of Mozart’s most famous works, the opening of the “Marriage of Figaro”. The first half will also feature guest soloists Yvonne Redman and Nathan Gunn singing arias and duets from “Marriage of Figaro”, “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute”.

An unusual element of the concert will feature a small wind ensemble conducted by conductor Stephen Peterson playing excerpts from “Don Giovanni” written for a wind octet. An arrangement of opera music for a wind ensemble was used to promote an opera during Mozart’s time as a composer.

The performance will be a preview of the performance of “Don Giovanni” at the Lyric Theater @ Illinois in late February, with Gunn both singing and making his directorial debut. Julie Gunn, director of Lyric Theater Studies, will comment on “Don Giovanni” during the performance of the wind ensemble.

The second half of the concert will feature three pianists from the Faculty of Music – Rochelle Sennet, William Heiles and Timothy Ehlen – performing Concerto No. 7 for three pianos in F major, K.242. The composition is rarely performed due to the difficulty of positioning three grand pianos together in a performance space, Schleicher said. The concert gives the three pianists the rare opportunity to perform together as a trio.

“Mozart is so famous as an author of piano concertos. He’s written so much, and this one is the least played, ”said Schleicher.