All posts by cdahn

Pianist Robert Levin takes the stage in BGSU Festival Series Feb 5.

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Versatile pianist Robert Levin will be the next performer in Bowling Green State University’s Festival Series. Levin will be in concert at 8 p.m. Feb. 5 in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

The program will feature works by Mozart, spanning his Bach- and Handel-influenced period. Although Mozart is generally thought of as a composer of the Viennese classical style, his father, who provided him with his beginning musical education, passed down his vast knowledge of the baroque tradition.

“Prelude and Fugue in C major” K.394, blends Mozart’s 1782 language with Baroque turns of phrase, while “Adagio variée” in F major” is often described as a somewhat “odd” composition because of its elaborate ornamentation. “Suite K. 399” is sometimes subtitled “In the style of Handel” because of Mozart’s ability to unite baroque flourishes with classical chordal vocabulary.

Levin is one of America’s leading keyboard players in the early instruments movement, but maintains a large repertory in all major periods and genres of piano music. He is equally at home at the harpsichord, the fortepiano, and the standard pianoforte, and as a recitalist, concerto performer and accompanist.

He has recorded the complete Bach concertos as well as the “English Suites” and “The Well-Tempered Clavier.” Other recordings include a Beethoven concerto cycle, and a Mozart concerto cycle with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music.

While at BGSU, Levin will also present a master class for participants in the David D. Dubois Piano Festival and Competition that takes place Feb. 4 and 5, and a lecture-presentation titled “Embellishment, Improvisation and Cadenzas in Mozart.”

Hosted by the College of Musical Arts, the Dubois piano competition provides a number of scholarship opportunities for high school students to attend BGSU and encourages undergraduate piano students to develop innovative programming ideas for outreach projects in addition to allowing current students to participate in music festivals around the world.

For ticket information, call the box office weekdays from noon-6 p.m. at 1-800-589-2224 or 419-372-8171, or e-mail musictickets@bgsu.edu

(Submitted by Susan Knapp)

Thomas Rosenkranz Performs a Solo Recital at October Musicale Festival in Tunisia.

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Faculty member and pianist, Thomas Rosenkranz recently performed a solo recital as the American representative at the October Musicale Festival in Tunisia. The concert took place at the Acropolium in Carthage and included works by Messiaen, Beethoven, as well as Rosenkranz’s own version of Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. This trip was sponsored by the American Embassy of Tunis and included a week of masterclasses at the Higher Institutes of Music in Tunis and at the newly founded Institute in Le Kef.

http://tunisia.usembassy.gov/policy/news2/fine-arts/u.s.-pianist-thomas-rosencranz-visits-tunisia

(Submitted by Thomas Rosenkranz)

Anubis Saxophone Quartet to perform at the CMA on February 7

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The Anubis Saxophone quartet, an ensemble that includes three BGSU alumni, will perform a concert of new works at the College of Musical Arts on Monday, February 7 in Bryan Recital Hall. The concert, part of the Music at the Forefront concert series sponsored by the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, begins at 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Their program includes the American premieres of works by composers Giorgio Netti and Ben Hjertmann and a new work by BGSU faculty composer Mikel Kuehn.

Anubis Quartet – Allison Balcetis, Ryan Muncy, Sean Patayanikorn and David Wegehaupt – is a saxophone ensemble committed to the creation, progression and performance of new music. Formed in 2007, the group is establishing itself as one of North America’s major contemporary saxophone ensembles. They have performed as guests at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand and at the 2008 North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial conference at the University of South Carolina. In addition to a Chicago debut performance at Nichols Concert Hall of the Music Institute of Chicago, engagements during previous concert seasons included a presentation of new works at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand at the 15th World Saxophone Congress and a performance at the North American Saxophone Alliance Region IX conference in Edmonton, Alberta. Recently, Anubis Quartet was the collaborating ensemble for Random Access Music, a New York-based composers’ collective, and will present a concert of five world premieres in New York City in May 2010. The quartet has commissioned and premiered works by living composers including Thierry Alla, Philippe Laval, Mikel Kuehn, Claudio Gabriele and Vincent Bouchot.

Anubis Quartet includes two Fulbright Scholars, one Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition gold medalist, one semi-finalist in the Adolphe Sax International Competition and the 4th place winner of the 2008 Jean-Marie Londeix International Saxophone Competition. In May 2010, Anubis Quartet was named the 2010-11 winner of the Claire Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists.

Music at the Forefront is an annual concert series featuring performances by accomplished and innovative performers of contemporary music. For more information contact the center at 419-372-2685 or email kdoles@bgsu.edu.

(Submitted by Kurt Doles)