TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama’s 2008-2009 Celebrity Series promises to dazzle audiences with internationally acclaimed stars representing diverse musical styles unlike any previously seen on the UA campus.
The UA School of Music’s concert series, which has been bringing performers from throughout the world to Tuscaloosa for more than 20 years, will feature performances ranging from a Russian master trumpeter and a children’s musician to an American pianist and a violin-clarinet-piano trio.
“We are truly excited about this season’s Celebrity Series as it represents an expansion in the number of concerts offered and a continued diversification of the artists featured,” said Skip Snead, director of UA’s School of Music. “Every concert this year will be a high quality event offering outstanding experiences for all ages and tastes.”
In addition to experiencing a breadth of music, Celebrity Series subscribers this year will enjoy seven concerts in the 2008-2009 season. The Celebrity Series, which is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, attracts audiences from across Alabama and surrounding states and provides the opportunity for musical art enthusiasts to enjoy the sounds of performers from around the world.
Sept. 16, 2008
VLADISLAV LAVRIK with PAM GORDON
Concert Hall, Moody Music Building, 7:30 p.m.
Vladislav Lavrik is one of the most outstanding classical and jazz trumpeters of his generation. Born in Zaporozhie, Ukraine in 1980, Vladislav was twice the winner of the Dokshitzer Competition of Young Trumpeters 1994 and 1996; winner of the Classical Heritage International Competition in Moscow in 1994; and was a prize winner in Moscow’s International Festival of Young Soloists in 1997 and 1998. Lavrik joined the Russian National Orchestra after graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in 2000. At 20 he was appointed principal trumpet, making him the youngest person to hold a principal chair in the history of the orchestra. He has been a Yamaha Artist in Russia since 2006. In March 2008, he was the first Russian soloist to perform with the United States Marine Band.
Pam Gordon is coordinator of accompanying, class piano instructor, and accompanist for University Singers at The University of Alabama. She is an active performer, educator and collaborator of chamber music and piano, crossing multiple levels of age, skill and geography. She holds a Master of Music and Bachelor of Music in piano performance from The University of Alabama. As a student at UA, she was awarded the Wilbur Rowand Prize for Excellence. She received the 2007 Druid Arts Award for “Musician of the Year” as selected by the Board of the Arts Council of the City of Tuscaloosa. Gordon’s chamber music collaborations include the Gordon and Penick Duo, accompanying many UA faculty members, students and ensembles associated with the School of Music. In 2006-2007 Gordon performed 45 concerts at 10 different universities. Gordon maintains a private studio of students through the Community Music School at the University. She is an organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Aliceville.
Oct. 3, 2008
JUSTIN ROBERTS
Concert Hall, Moody Music Building, 7:30 p.m.
Justin Roberts and his band mates, The Not Ready for Naptime Players, dish out unexpectedly intelligent and whimsically rock music for kids and their parents. Roberts’ music has been compared to Elvis Costello, the Fountains of Wayne, Paul Simon and Nick Lowe. He has played at New York’s Symphony Space, Washington D.C.’s National Geographic Live!, Los Angeles’ Getty Museum, Seattle’s Moore Theater, and Chicago’s Lollapalooza and Ravinia festivals. He has garnered kudos and raves from national media including the New York Times, Newsweek, People, Entertainment Weekly, and the Chicago Tribune. He released his first CD “Great Big Sun” in 1998. Sesame Street Magazine named the collection its “Best Music Gift of the Year.”
Nov. 9, 2008
JEFFREY SIEGEL
Concert Hall, Moody Music Building, 2 p.m.
American pianist Jeffrey Siegel has played with some of the world’s great orchestras. He has performed abroad with the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and others. He has collaborated with famed conductors Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson Thomas, Eugene Ormandy, Sir George Solti and Yevgeny Svetlanov.
In addition to his solo appearances, Siegel presents Keyboard Conversations, a unique concert-plus-commentary format in which he speaks to the audience about the music before performing each work in its entirety. As a conductor, Siegel has appeared with the Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Saint Louis symphony orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and orchestras in France, Scandinavia and South America.
Jan. 15, 2009
ANDREW WILLIS
Concert Hall, Moody Music Building, 7:30 p.m.
Andrew Willis is recognized for his performances on historical and modern pianos in the United States and abroad. He has recorded a wide variety of solo and chamber repertoire for Claves, Albany, Centaur, Newport Classics and CRI records. The New York Times called his recording of Beethoven’s Op. 106 a “Hammerklavier” of rare stature.
At The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he joined the piano faculty in 1994, Willis serves as artistic director of the biennial Focus on Piano Literature and premiered Martin Amlin’s Sonata No. 7 in 2000. Willis holds a Bachelor of Music in piano from The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski; a Master of Music in accompanying from Temple University, where he studied with George Sementovsky and Lambert Orkis; and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in historical performance from Cornell University, where he studied with Malcolm Bilson. For a number of years, his multifaceted musical career was based in Philadelphia, where he served as keyboardist of The Philadelphia Orchestra for several seasons. He also has taught at several colleges and universities and at Tanglewood, an estate and musica venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Mass., which has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937.
Feb. 22, 2009
VERDEHR TRIO
Concert Hall, Moody Music Building, 2 p.m.
The Verdehr Trio has concentrated on molding and defining the violin-clarinet-piano trio for more than 30 years. The group has commissioned more than 200 new works from some of the world’s most prominent and exciting composers. These efforts are titled “The Making of a Medium.” The trio, in residence at Michigan State University, has performed in 17 European countries, the former Soviet Union, South America, Central America, Asia, Australia, and in almost every state in the United States. The Trio has performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Library of Congress, Vienna’s Brahmssaal, Sydney Opera House, London’s Wigmore Hall, Auditorio de Madrid, Dvorak Hall in Prague, IRCAM Centre in Paris and Leningrad’s Philharmonic Chamber Hall. Trio members are Walter Verdehr, violinist; Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, clarinetist; and Silvia Roederer, pianist.
March 23, 2009
Celebrity Series
WILLIAM KINDERMAN
Concert Hall, Moody Music Building, 7:30 p.m.
William Kinderman was born in 1952 in Philadelphia, Pa. He studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and music at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley. A Humboldt State University fellow, Kinderman has received awards from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He has been in residence at the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, has taught extensively at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, and is a collaborating professor at the Aula de musica at the University of Alcala in Spain. Currently he is professor of music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and guest professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany.
Kinderman’s concertizing and lectures across North America and Europe attest to his dual strengths as a performer and researcher. He is the author of numerous books on the music of Beethoven, has been published widely on a variety of classical composers, and has recorded extensively.
April 20, 2009
DAVID BREITMAN
with THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
HUXFORD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Concert Hall, Moody Music Building, 7:30 p.m.
David Breitman is equally at home with the fortepiano and the modern piano, and his growing discography reflects that versatility. Most recently he recorded a major new song cycle by the Cuban-American composer Jorge Martin with baritone Sanford Sylvan, after giving the 65-minute work its New York premiere at Carnegie Recital Hall in May 2000. This was the fourth recital record with Sylvan, following “Beloved that Pilgrimage” (20th century American song cycles), Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, and an all-Fauré disc. “Pilgrimage” and the Fauré were nominated for Grammy awards. Also in 2000 he released Mozart’s fortepiano-violin sonatas with Jean François Rivest, a four-CD set on Amberola.
Celebrity Series subscriptions are $72 and $55, single ticket prices are $22, $15 and $7 for students. All concerts take place in the Concert Hall of the Moody Music Building on the campus of The University of Alabama. For tickets, call the School of Music Box Office at 205/348-7111, or visit www.music.ua.edu for information.
UA’s School of Music is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the “USA Today” Academic All American Teams.
Contact
Sarah Colwell, College of Arts and Sciences, 205/348-8539, sccolwell@as.ua.edu