ORONO – Some 160 members of the Oratorio Society and University Singers will perform the bold and racy choral classic “Carmina Burana” at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27, in the Memorial Gymnasium. Admission is $6, but free for UMaine students with a MaineCard.

“Carmina Burana” is a popular scenic cantata of 25 medieval poems set to music in 1935-1936 by German composer Carl Orff.

Conducted by Ludlow Hallman, director of UMaine’s Oratorio Society, the combined choruses will be accompanied by two pianos and a percussion section.

The concert has special significance for Hallman, a music professor at UMaine since 1970. Before leaving the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg, Austria, where he earned diplomas in singing and conducting, Hallman was the baritone soloist in an academy performance of “Carmina Burana” that year for the legendary Carl Orff’s 75th birthday.

“It makes me feel a particular connection to ‘Carmina Burana’ because I did it for Carl Orff,” says Hallman, noting that the use of two pianos and a percussion section is an arrangement specifically approved by Orff.

The poems of “Carmina Burana” were composed by Benedictine monks and wandering minstrels in 12th century Bavaria. The five-part cycle is perhaps best known for its rousing “O Fortuna,” a philosophic poem about fortune and named for the mythological goddess of fortune.

“It’s one of the most popular pieces of 20th century choral repertoire. Everybody knows that piece because it’s been used for so many commercials,” Hallman says. “We’re very excited about it and we hope we can get some people to come. It’s about love and sex and drinking.”

The work also celebrates spring, says Dennis Cox, music professor and director of the choral music program and conductor of the University Singers. He considers “Carmina Burana” a perfect spring concert choice.

Cox says the vibrancy of the piece makes it a traditionally popular selection for both the singers and the audience.

“It has almost a barbarian primeval quality about it,” he says. “It’s almost hypnotic for members of the audience, and that’s why they’ve used it in so many films. There is a ritualistic incantation about it.”

Soloists for the UMaine performance include undergraduates Justin Zang, baritone; Chris Keene, tenor; Ashley Brewer, mezzo-soprano; Lisa Roth, soprano; and UMaine graduate Candace DiBiase, soprano. Stuart Marrs, music professor, percussionist and School of Performing Arts chairman, prepared the percussion section.

In a 1999 New York Times review, critic Ann Powers said Carmina Burana was a ubiquitous composition that has become a staple of choruses, orchestras, opera companies and ballet corps.

“As the most likely musical background for jousting nobles or scary monsters, used in films from ‘Excalibur’ to ‘Natural Born Killers,’ Orff’s work defines the sound of the pop Gothic,” Powers wrote. “Its dramatic contours seem to suit every style.

Charlotte Church, the Welsh soprano sensation, sings from it on her latest album, ‘Voice of an Angel,’ as did Barbra Streisand before her.

Nancy Kerrigan and Torvil and Dean have skated to it, video game players annihilate enemies to it, and the German industrial rock group Einsturzende Neubauten and the teen-pop heartthrobs 98 Degrees have used it to herald the opening of their shows.”

Ticket information may be obtained by calling the box office of the Maine Center of the Arts at 581-1755.