Guest Artist Recital

 

Faculty Oboe Recital

Leah Forsyth, Oboe

Monday, February 19, 2024, at 7:30 pm

Magale Recital Hall

Natchitoches, Louisiana

PROGRAM included: 

Trio for Oboe, Violin, and Cello ... Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)

    Adagio - Molto Allegro - Adagio

    Andante - Agitato - Adagio

    Vivo

Emilio Castro, violin

Paul Christopher, cello

 

Guest Artist Guitar Recital

Cain Budds, Louisiana Tech University

Tuesday, February 20, 2024, at 5:30 pm

Varnado Hall

Natchitoches, Louisiana

PROGRAM

En Los Trigales ... Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999)

Four Venezuelan Waltzes ... Antonio Lauro (1917-1986)

    El Marabino

    Angostura

    Carora

    Maria Luisa

Six Balkan Miniatures ... Dusan Bogdanoic (B. 1955)

    Jutarnje Kolo (Morning Dance)

    Zalopojka (Lament)

    Vranjanka

    Makedonsko Kolo (Macedonian Dance)

    Siroko (Wide Song)

    Sitni Vez (Tiny-knit Dance)

El Decameron Negro ... Leo Brouwer (b. 1939)

    El Arpa de Guerrero

    La huida de los Amantes por el Valle De los Ecos

    Ballada de la Donecella Enamorada

Three Fantasies ... Mark Anthony Cruz (b. 1963)

    Fantasy on Instrumental Motifs by Led Zeppelin

    Fantasy on Instrumental Motifs by Yes

    Fantasy on Instrumental Motifs by Rush

 

Christopher, Drs. Sanders, Budds, Brouillette

Guest Artist Recital

University of Louisiana at Monroe

Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall

Monroe, Louisiana

Thursday, February 15, 2024, at 11:00 am

PROGRAM featuring solo cello works by Christian Wolff (b.1934)

Cello Suite Variation (2000)

    Tempo of Prelude

    Tempo of Saraband

    Tempo of Gigue

One Cellist (2013)

Small Pieces for Cellist (Anton) (2018)

Guest Artist Double Bass Recital

Yung-Chiao Wei, Double Bass

Chaio Chou, Piano

Friday, February 16, 2024, at 7:30 pm

Magale Recital Hall

Natchitoches, Louisiana

PROGRAM

Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op. 102, No. 2 ... Beethoven

    Allegro con brio

    Adagio con molto sentimento d'affetto - Attacca

    Allegro - Allegro fugato

Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99 ... Brahms

    Allegro vivace

    Adagio affettuoso

    Allegro passionate

    Allegro molto

New Orleans Ballet

Rapides Symphony Orchestra

Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center

Alexandria, Louisiana

Sunday, February 4, 2024, at 2:30 pm

PROGRAM

Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043 ... JS Bach

"Concerto Barocco" choreographed by George Balanchine

Dances Sacred and Profane ... Debussy

    Deborah Goppelt, Harpist

"Esplanade" choreographed by Diogo de Lima

Serenade for Strings in C Major, op. 48 ... Tchaikovsky

    Andante non troppo-Allegro

    Valse. Moderato

    Elegia. Larghetto elegiaco

    Finale (Tema russo). Andante-Allegro con spirito

"Serenade" choreographed by George Balanchine

Josias Ramos, Christopher

 

Solo Cello Recital

Faculty Recital by Paul Christopher

Thursday, February 8, 2024, at 5:30 pm

Magale Recital Hall

Natchitoches, Louisiana

PROGRAM featuring solo cello works by Christian Wolff (b.1934)

One Cellist (2013)

Cello Suite Variation (2000)

    Tempo of Prelude

    Tempo of Saraband

    Tempo of Gigue

Small Pieces for Cellist (Anton) (2018)

Program Notes by Dr. John T. Dunn, Associate Professor of Fine Arts

Christian Wolff (b. 1934) a self-taught composer of the “New York School,” which consisted of a group of artists that drew inspiration from surrealism and avant-garde artistic ideas. He was born in Nice, France, to the German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who published works by Kafka and Walter Benjamin and later helped found Pantheon Books. His family escaped fascism in Europe in 1941 by emigrating to New York City, where they started a business, publishing English translations of European literature. When Wolff was 16, his piano teacher sent him to study composition with John Cage, one of the leaders of the New York School. The two quickly became friends, and Wolff was closely involved with Cage’s inner circle, which also included musician Morton Feldman and dancer Merce Cunningham. He never left his literary roots, however, and was soon hired to teach Classics at Harvard University specializing in the works of Euripides, and later taught classics, comparative literature, and music at Dartmouth College. He became the Strauss Professor of Music there, and finally retired from teaching in 1999. He remains active with his compositional output in retirement.

            Wolff’s early works have a strong emphasis on exploring silence, indeterminacy, and often explored creative, new ways of including improvisation. He would often create new notation to explore his soundscapes his music would often be based on complicated rhythmic schema, systems of aural cues, or contain political texts based on the policies of the Industrial Workers of the World (or Wobblies). In Wolff’s collaborations with choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham, the two created something innovative at the time (but more common now): performances where dance and music would happen simultaneously yet would be artistically two separate statements. Wolff’s music has reached a wider range of audiences than most other avant-garde composer thanks to his collaboration with the rock band Sonic Youth and their album, Goodbye, 20^th Century.

            Wolff composed Cello Suite Variation at the urging of the Slovakian composer Daniel Matej after a discussion of performance practice. Here, Wolff shows that a museum piece of the canon, such as Bach’s First Cello Suite, can be transformed into new music. When Cello Suite Variation borrows melodic material from Bach, it is as a structural element not an aural quotation that is readily identifiable (as is heard in the music of Charles Ives, for example). By marking each movement “Tempo of,” he establishes that liberties with other aspects of music such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and technique occur, but the tempo of each of these Baroque dances should be maintained.

            One Cellist (2013) was composed for Charles Curtis, Professor of Contemporary Music Performance at the University of California at San Diego. The piece is built on small musical units, divided by indeterminate amounts of space, that the performer then connects. Some ideas repeat in various guises, but it is up to the performer to create unity, or disunity, through their pacing. As in most of Wolff’s scores, microtones are used to provide an unusual coloration, and dynamics are left up to the performer.

Small Pieces for Cellist (2018) uses a different technique in each movement to extend the performer’s control over various dimensions of music. As Wolff notes, “There are five pieces. In the first, second and fifth there are phrase sequences with free pauses between them. There are also notations for just dynamics (sounds free), and for just rhythms (free sounds). The third and fourth pieces are on grids of 6X6 and 8X8 bars, allowing continuities to be chosen in variously free ways.” The “Cellist” in the title is the dedicatee, cellist Anton Lukoszeviere, who gave the world premiere of this piece at St. James church in London in 2018.