The Waterbury Symphony Orchestra (WSO), which utilizes NVCC’s Mainstage Theater as its primary performance space, wrapped up its 2014-15 season with Verdi Requiem, featuring the Naugatuck Valley Community College Chorale, The Connecticut Choral Society and The New Jersey Choral Society on the weekend of April 25-26.

The performance, conducted by WSO Music Director and Conductor Leif Bjaland, featured a quartet of talented soloists: soprano Laquita Mitchell, alto Jennifer Feinstein, tenor Dominic Armstrong and bass Dean Elzinga. In all, more than 200 choir members and musicians, including about 20 NVCC students, packed the stage, producing an impressive display of musical muscle.

Verdi Requiem is perhaps one of about a half dozen choral-orchestral masterworks which require huge performing forces, according to NVCC Instructor of Music Andrew Ardizzoia. “A lot of our kids are planning to transfer and to have this experience under their belt at a community college is really special,” says Ardizzoia. “It took this experience for me to understand the depth of the relationship between the WSO and the College and the Music Department.”

Before the WSO’s final performance of the season, Executive Director Daniel Rostan thanked patrons for their continued support and expressed the symphony’s gratitude to NVCC President Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Ph.D. for ensuring that the WSO has a performance space that it’s proud to call home.  More than 100 talented musicians from across New England comprise the symphony, which presents its concert series at the College’s Fine Arts Center and various locations throughout Litchfield County.

Ardizzoia says having the WSO essentially in residence at NVCC is something that benefits both the symphony and the College. “It’s a cultural center. It’s a place that people come to experience the arts in all of its forms, whether it’s musical theatre with Hairspray, or it’s the WSO doing the Verdi Requiem or it’s the concert band… bringing people to campus to experience that is an important part of the role we play in the community.”