By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

A Beethoven festival and an all-Bach recital are the offerings to be presented by the Department of Music as it opens its 2001-02 season next month.

 

	The Ying String Quartet will perform Sept. 11, 13 and 14 as part of the Beethoven festival to be presented by the Department of Music.
	Photo: Antonino Barbagallo

The Beethoven festival is presented in an effort to help place Beethoven's life and works in a large musical, biographical and cultural context, says Philip E. Rehard, concert manager. Although in the past UB has presented Beethoven's complete string quartets in a series of six concerts, this year the quartets will be presented during two concentrated periods: Sept. 11, 13 and 14 by the Ying String Quartet, and May 30-31 and June 1 by the Alexander String Quartet.

The September performances will be offered as part of a Beethoven festival entitled "The Familiar and Less Familiar," which will include an evening of "other" Beethoven chamber music on Sept. 12 and an orchestral program of "Beethovenesque" music on Sept. 15. The festival also will feature lectures, panel discussions, an open rehearsal and an exhibit in the Music Library in Baird Hall.

The chamber music concert will feature performances by the Baird Piano Trio and music department faculty members Stephen Manes, piano; Roland E. Martin, piano, and Dora Ohrenstein, soprano.

The "Beethovenesque" concert will feature the Slee Sinfonietta, with Magnus MŠrtensson, conductor, and Manes on piano. A pre-concert discussion at 7:15 p.m. will be moderated by Christopher H. Gibbs, assistant professor of music.

Since winning the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1993, the Ying String Quartet has established an international reputation for excellence in performance. The quartet, which has served a residency at the Eastman School of Music, was the first recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant to support chamber music in rural America.

 

	The department's season officially will open on Saturday with an all-Bach recital featuring Roland Martin on organ and harpsichord. The recital will be held at 8 p.m. in Slee Concert Hall, North Campus.
	Photo: Frank Miller

The music department's season officially will open at 8 p.m. on Saturday in Slee Concert Hall on the North Campus with the all-Bach recital featuring Martin on organ and harpsichord.

He will be joined in the recital by Gretchen Rowe, flute; Sarah Abend Fritz, violin; Mari Mizutani, violin; Brian Walnicki, viola, and Bryan Eckenrode, violoncello, in performing Bach's "Musical Offering." The program also will include 14 recently discovered canons based on the bass line of the aria from Bach's "Goldberg Variations."

The program will be discussed in a pre-concert lecture at 7:15 p.m. by David Fuller, professor emeritus of music.

Martin, who teaches organ and harpsichord, opened last year's music department season in similar fashion with a performance of Bach's "The Art of Fugue."

Single tickets for most concerts sponsored by the Department of Music range from $5 to $12. Discounts are available for seniors, students and UB faculty, staff and alumni for the more expensive concerts.

Tickets may be obtained at the Slee Hall box office from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, from the Center for the Arts box office from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and at all TicketMaster outlets.

The full slate of Slee Hall concerts is available online at www.slee.buffalo.edu .