VOLUME 33, NUMBER 23 THURSDAY, April 4, 2002
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Flutist Wilson to head concert lineup
Violist Garth Knox, "wunderkind" Felix Hell among artists to perform during April

By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor

World-renowned flutist Ransom Wilson will make two appearances in Slee Hall as part of the Department of Music's April concert offerings.
 
  Flutist Ransom Wilson will perform twice this month at UB.
   

Wilson will appear as guest soloist with the Slee Sinfonietta at 8 p.m. April 16 in one of a series of WNED's 25th anniversary concerts. He also will perform, accompanied by pianist Douglas Ashcraft, at 8 p.m. April 18. And he will conduct a free master class at 4 p.m. on April 17 in Baird Hall for flute students and enthusiasts alike.

The Slee Sinfonietta, UB's resident professional chamber orchestra, performs a series of concerts each year devoted to lesser-known repertoire, particularly that of the pre-classical era and the most recent contemporary music. Its April 16 program, conducted by Magnus Mårtensson, is no exception, and will feature Luigi Nono's "Canti per 13," Carl-Axel Hall's "Elegie," and C.P.E. Bach's Concerto in D Minor, during which Wilson will perform as soloist.

The program for Wilson's April 18 recital—a keen mix of the old, new and newly discovered—will include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Sonata in F Major, K. 376;" Franz Schubert's "Introduction and Variations, Op. 160;" Michael Daugherty's "The High and the Mighty, for piccolo and piano;" Francis Poulenc's "Un jouer de flûte berce les ruines, for flute solo;" Carlos Guastavino's "Introducción y Allegro," and Carl Vine's "Sonata for Flute and Piano."

A member of the Yale music faculty, Ransom is equally esteemed as an outstanding conductor of orchestral and operatic repertoire, a Grammy-nominated artist and a gifted arranger. He is music director and principal conductor of Solisti New York Orchestra, which he founded in 1981; artistic director of Oklahoma's famed OK MOZART Festival; artistic director of the Mozart Festival-at-Sea on the M.S. Westerdam, and music director of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra in Idyllwild, Calif.

The tickets for both concerts are $12 for the general public, $9 for UB faculty, staff, alumni and senior citizens, and $5 for students.

As part of a week-long tenure in the Department of Music, exploratory violist Garth Knox, one of the most sought-out musicians in the world, will present a concert at 8 p.m. Monday in Baird Recital Hall. In addition to the concert, Knox will work privately with composition faculty and students in various settings, including lectures and demonstrations.

The concert, which will include a performance of "The Misprision of Transparency"—a work by UB student Aaron Cassidy—is free and open to the public. Other works to be performed will include Attilio Ariosti's "Primera Lezione" (1721); Alejandro Castanos' "Ft;" Marin Marais' "Pieces du 4ième livre;" the artist's own work, "Sympathetic string stories no. 6," and Georg Friedrich Haas's "Solo."

After his studies at the Royal College of Music in London, where he won several prizes, Knox became a member of the English Chamber Orchestra, which allowed him to work with well-known artists like Daniel Baremboim, Pincas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman and James Galway.

During his seven years as a member of the Arditti String Quartet, he toured internationally and collaborated with renowned contemporary composers such as Ligeti, Kurtag, Berio and Stockhausen. Since 1998, Knox has been based in Paris, enjoying a career that includes performing, teaching and recording.

Seventeen-year-old "wunderkind" Felix Hell will perform the fourth concert in the "Organ Recitals on the Fisk, "Op. 95" series, at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Slee. Already a veteran of more than 200 professional recitals, Hell has studied at Julliard and is pursuing further studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Born in 1985 in Frankenthal/Pfalz, Germany, Hell took his first piano lesson at the age of seven. He played the "Prelude in C Major" from J.S. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" (BWV846) by heart a few days after listening to and observing the piano player. Less than a year later, he took his first organ lesson and was able to demonstrate his success just two months later to Leo Kraemer, professor and principal organist of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Speyer Germany, playing Bach's "Prelude and Fugue in F Major."

His program for the UB concert will feature J.S. Bach's "Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor, BMV 542;" "Schmuecke dich o liebe Seele (Leipzig Chorale), BWV 654;" "Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532;" Alexandre Guilmant's "Sonata No. 1 in D Minor;" Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's "Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 65;" César Franck's "Chorale No. 1 in E Major;" Norbert J. Schneider's "Toccata 'Schlafes Bruder,'" (1994) and Franz Liszt's "Adagio" (Consolation) and "Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H."

Tickets are $5.

Two upcoming faculty recitals will double as showcases for artists-in-residence in the Department of Music. The Amherst Saxophone Quartet will perform its final concert as a resident ensemble at 8 p.m. Saturday in Slee. The quartet will be joined by the UB Percussion Ensemble, directed by Anthony Miranda, in a concert that promises to be full of interesting sounds, including the world premiere of the jazz-inspired "Tad's Dilemma with Bird: A Lovers Quarrel Resolved," by local composer John Bacon.

The Baird Trio will appear on the Slee stage at 8 p.m. Tuesday with an alluring program that contrasts the very old with the very new. The trio, featuring Stephen Manes on piano, Jonathan Golove on cello and Movses Pogossian on violin, will offer a world premiere performance of Golove's "Bad Dreams (The Seventeenth Murder)" in between seminal works by Hadyn and Schubert.

Throughout April and the beginning of May, several student ensembles will present concerts. All are free of charge and open to the public. The performance schedule:

  • UB Percussion Ensemble, Anthony Miranda, director, 8 p.m., April 19, Slee Concert Hall
  • Plosion, UB's Flute Ensemble, Cheryl Gobbett Hoffman, director, 3 p.m. April 21, Slee
  • UB Concert Band, Jon Nelson, conductor, 8 p.m. April 24, Slee
  • UB Choir and Chorus, Harold Rosenbaum, conductor, 8 p.m. April 25, Slee
  • UB Symphony Orchestra, Magnus Mårtensson, director, 8 p.m. April 26, Slee
  • UB Saxophone Ensemble, Harry Fackelman, director, 3 p.m., April 28, Slee
  • UB Contemporary Ensemble, Jonathan Golove, director, 8 p.m., May 1, Slee
  • UB Jazz Ensemble, Dave Schiavone, director, 8 p.m. May 2, Baird Recital Hall

Tickets for music department concerts can be purchased at the Slee box office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, at the Center for the Arts box office from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.