After 41 years, Trinity College music professor Gerald Moshell will retire at the end of the spring semester. He conducts his final concert at Trinity on Friday night.
Moshell first stepped onto the Trinity College campus in 1977, a bright-eyed 30-year-old pianist ready to make a difference. But he said he was handed some duties that didn't exactly jibe with his own musical interests.
“I was brought to Trinity primarily to be the choral conductor, as well as teach course in history and theory,” said Moshell. “But I worked it out with the then-dean that there be a musical theater component as well.”
And Moshell said soon after that, he immersed himself and his students in musical theater. Now after four decades, Moshell will retire in June, leaving a legacy of performances that often stretched the boundaries of this great American art form.
“We were able to do a lot of really good, unknown repertoire,” he said. “There's just a whole bunch of them that are really, really worthy shows that, actually with a little bit of advertising we had people coming from pretty far distances saying oh my golly, I've read about this piece, but I've never heard of a production of it. That's been very rewarding.”
Moshell is in his early 70s and he said it's time for a new chapter in his life.
“It's been a jam-packed and varied career,” said Moshell. “I think enough is enough.”
Maestro Moshell's farewell concert features works by Bach and Schoenberg, and lots of Broadway songs, including a song from his own off-Broadway Musical, "Lives and Loves."
The concert takes place Friday night at Trinity College's Goodwin Theater.
