Bach Cantata
A UMD Choral Activities favorite, the Bach Cantata Series explores the more than 200 cantatas written by the great master through informal performances by students, faculty, staff, and community friends.
Music in Mind: The Boston Trio
In their UMD debut, The Boston Trio presents works that invoke the spirit of colors. Jennifer Higdon’s Piano Trio movements entitled "Pale Yellow" and "Fiery Red" underscore that colors, like music, reflect moods and energy levels. In her spectacular arrangement of Debussy's La Mer, Sally Beamish blends orchestral colors for the piano trio palette, creating – in the composer's own words – “light and shade, and subtleties of color." Antonin Dvořák's richly saturated melodies in the dark key of F minor evoke velvety hues of blue and purple.
Program:
Stefan Jackiw & Jeremy Denk with UMD School of Music Vocal Quartet
Two of America’s most thought-provoking, multi-faceted and compelling classical chamber artists, award-winning pianist Jeremy Denk and violinist Stefan Jackiw, join together to perform Charles Ives’ complete sonatas for violin and piano. They combine forces with a quartet of UMD School of Music alumni singers who perform the various hymns and songs from which Ives drew inspiration for his sonatas.
Music Mind: Marimba and Strings
Faculty percussionist Lee Hinkle joins School of Music colleagues to premiere a new work for marimba and strings, which he commissioned with Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield as winners of the Global Première Consortium Commissioning Project.
Music in Mind: String Fling!
School of Music string faculty collaborate in unusual chamber music combinations on this ”quartetless” concert featuring Brahms' String Quintet, No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111.
Love and Information
Someone can’t get a signal. Friends debate the existence of God. A man has a secret. A scientist dissects a brain. A person is in love and that love can’t be reciprocated. Experiencing this kaleidoscope of vignettes is like watching a stranger’s Snapchats – the characters may be unfamiliar and unrelated to each other, but the emotions are instantly recognizable. In this relentlessly paced serio-comedy, celebrated British playwright Caryl Churchill asks how our infinite access to inspiring, mundane, crucial, insignificant information affects how we connect to each other – and ourselves.
Music in Mind: Prokofiev Quintet and Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat
Rivals and fellow Russian expatriates, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev both sought – and found – fame and fortune writing music for the theater. They were also known for accepting short-term commissions from touring ballet troupes when in desperate need of cash. Such is the early history of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (1918) and Prokofiev’s Trapeze (1924), better known as the Quintet in G-minor.
UMD Gamelan and Koto Ensembles
The complex interlocking rhythms of Balinese music on percussive instruments, the myriad expressions and the delicate motions of Balinese dance unite in the UMD Gamelan Saraswati. The quiet beauty, simplicity and harmonizing effect of Japanese nature are revealed in the music of the UMD Koto Ensemble.
Music in Mind: Berndt Thurner, vibraphone
In this profoundly meditative and immersive musical experience, Austrian vibraphonist Berndt Thurner performs Stuart Saunders Smith’s solo vibraphone work, The Deep. Expressing the expansiveness of the ocean and subtle variety of waves, the composer has said, “On the surface, The Deep sounds like it’s dealing with repetition, but the larger repetition is that none of the repetitions are the same.”
Music in Mind: Ghost Dialogues
Trumpet professor Chris Gekker performs works from his September album release, "Ghost Dialogues". He is joined by piano professor Rita Sloan to premiere works by Harvard University resident composer Carson Cooman and UMD composition professor Robert Gibson. Voice professor Delores Ziegler then joins the duo for Cooman's song cycle, "Chasing Down the Moon". Gekker rounds out the program performing contemporary jazz compositions with faculty Chris Vadala and Robert Gibson, and distinguished alumna Lianna Gekker.
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