Department of Music Blog

Noon, Thursday, February 26
132 Music Building, free

Johannes Brahms, Intermezzo Op.118 no.2
Brian Hu, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata Op.10 no.1, Allegro molto e con brio
Qui Dong Chen, piano

C.W. Gluck, Melodie (from Orfeo)
Fritz Kreisler, Liebesleid
Danielle Rager, violin
*Roger Zahab, at the piano

J.S. Bach, Short Prelude in D minor
Frederic Chopin, Waltz in E minor
Katie Blashford, piano

*faculty artist

IonSound Project will be guest artists at the next Pitt Arts Arts Encounter luncheon on Monday, March 2 from noon–1 p.m. in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room. The event includes free lunch and, of course, free music. IonSound will preview their upcoming Sunday concert, performing excerpts from music by John Adams, Patrick Burke, Eric Moe, Philip Thompson, and Roger Zahab.

A quick reminder that MOTE’s presentation of Vox, originally scheduled for February 28, has been canceled.

Ethnomusicology graduate student Ben Pachter will give a lecture on Japanese group taiko drumming titled “Big Drum, Small World” as part of Pitt’s Outside the Classroom Curriculum. Pachter’s talk is sponsored by Asian Studies Center and takes place at Monday, March 2 at 6 p.m. in 4130 Posvar Hall.

Abstract: Since its emergence in the 1950s, kumidaiko, or Japanese group taiko drumming, has taken the world by storm. Coming out of a long tradition of performance at shrines and in festivals, it has evolved into a performance style equally at home on stage and in religious ceremonires. Kumidaiko is played around the workd by people of all backgrounds, and has been featured at venues as varued as Walt Disney World and Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

Co-presented by Asian Studies Center and Outside the Classroom Curriculum. For more information, please contact Jennifer Murawski at jennm@pitt.edu or 412-383-3062.

Violinist Mary Rowell and pianist Geoffrey Burleson perform for Music on the Edge at the Warhol  on Saturday Night (details). Here’s a recent e-mail interview with Mary and Geoff cross-posted from Pittsburgh New Music Net.

PNMN: Your Music on the Edge program at the Warhol covers a really wide range of styles, from Vincent Persichetti to Arvo Pärt to Amy Kohn… those are three very different artists right there. Do you see any overarching theme for the program or was the goal more to represent the variety of contemporary music?

MR: Our programming is based on our own current musical interests with an eye toward interesting juxtapositions that come about by creating a program from these interests. The obvious similarities of George Antheil, Vincent Perschetti and Julia Wolfe of a compositional order of energy and a certain type of urban-ness. Eve Beglarian’s fascination with tone coloring and finding melody and harmony in what seems like noise is complimented by Arvo Pärt’s chant-like Fratres .The whimsical music hall quality of Amy Kohn’s music is touched with a wondrous quality yet can be tied with Antheil’s popular song qualities. Jon Appleton, known for his innovative work and teaching in the electronic medium, is represented here with a new sonata that is reminiscent of Darius Milhaud; tonal, lush and evoking early swing music. I suppose all the program lacks is atonality… It certainly offers many different music voices

GB:  One by now very well-established 20th/21st-century musical genre is that of the wacky-stylistic-juxtaposition piece. George Antheil helped to codify this genre in his 1923 Sonata No. 2 for Violin, Piano and Drum, with which we open the program. Phrases of ragtime, stride, sentimental popular song, and grandiose romanticism collide with each other, but are linked by use of the same motifs, and are satirically charged via sudden, unexpected dissonances. Just when you expect a final cadence in F Major, the piano enters with industrial music, with clusters and single notes in rhythmic patterns evoking the music of factory machines. But the piece ends with a soft, plaintive duet between the violin and drums. The juxtapositions within this piece set up the myriad contrasts for the rest of our program, taken from the sublime crazy quilt of American Music: the beautifully crafted, distinctive classicism and romanticism of Persichetti; the intensely spiritual music of Pärt, with its allusions to both ancient chant and to the Baroque Chaconne; the avant-pop of Amy Kohn… (more…)

Senior Sarah Albani is double major in music and biology. On Wednesday, February 18 she will perform Walton’s Viola Concerto with the University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The concert takes place at 8 p.m. in Bellefield Hall Auditorium and is free to the public.

Preparing the Walton Viola Concerto has been a discouraging and exciting experience.  Over the span of learning the piece, I had so many repeats of the same scenario; I would come to a section that was very challenging, panic at the prospect of not being able to work through it (that was the discouraging part of the experience), and then, through a lot of puzzling over finger positions and bow placements I would eventually succeed at playing the passage so that I could move on to the next obstacle (that was the exciting part of the experience).

Each of the movements of the Concerto provides something different for me to focus on with my playing.  The first movement, for example, has many double stops, octaves, and notes that are played well into the upper portions of the A string; whenever I play this movement, I put my energy toward playing in tune and with clarity.  If the first movement is like a cross country race with difficult terrain, the second movement is like a full-on sprint.  It requires me to focus on playing quickly, efficiently, and with much agility, both in the left and right hands.  Finally, the third movement, I believe, is not as technically demanding as the first two.  However, it does require me to really focus on playing smooth, lovely phrases.

The Walton Viola Concerto, on a whole, is a captivating piece, a piece where chaotic intensity and graceful tenderness flow seamlessly together.  I am really excited to perform it with the orchestra!

Our next three events comprise a lecture by ethnomusicologist and composer Victor Grauer on Music in Deep History, The Heinz Chapel Choir’s annual Chamber Choir Festival, and concert by the Pitt’s Symphony Orchestra. Grauer’s lecture takes place on Friday, February 13 at 4 p.m. in Room 132 of the Music Building, the Heinz Chapel Choir and guest choirs will perform on Sunday, February 15 at 3 p.m. in Heinz Chapel, and UPSO performs on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Bellefield Hall. All of these events are free to the public, so come to all of them!

Professor Andrew Weintraub leads the University Gamelan in a concert at Heinz Hall as Resident Conductor Daniel Meyer and the PSO look on.

On December 9–12 Pitt’s Gamelan Ensemble, directed by Professor Andrew Weintraub and Pitt graduate student Indra Ridwan, joined the Pittsburgh Symphony at Heinz Hall where busloads of fourth graders had the opportunity to explore the cultures and traditions of Asia through music. Gamelan Ensemble performances were interspersed with the PSO’s presentations of Dialogue of the Wind and Sea from Debussy’s La Mer, The Chinese Dance and Dance of the Mirlitons from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, Polovtzian Dances from Borodin’s Prince Igor, and music by two contemporary Chinese composers, Chen Gang (Morning in Miao Ling) and Zhou Tian (First Sight). Throughout the program Professor Weintraub and PSO Resident Conductor Daniel Meyer explained various elements of Asian music and how the different composers incorporated them into the orchestral medium. (more…)