Eastern Michigan University's winter music schedule celebrates
the creation of new music and appreciates sounds of the
past, including a farewell performance from the Vermeer
Quartet. With more than 40 scheduled concerts and events,
everyone — from campus to the Ypsilanti community — can
find music to enjoy.
"I am especially excited about our winter 2007 event offerings,"
said Kristy Meretta, coordinator of EMU music and dance
events. "A quick glance at the Department of Music and
Dance listings shows an amazing variety of talent on display.
We have nearly 50 faculty, guest and student recitals,
lectures and special performances planned from bands, orchestras,
choirs and string quartets. These include organ/harpsichord/piano,
jazz, dance and opera. Music Now Fest (Feb. 21-23) offers
a three-day immersion into contemporary music."
Highlights of the winter 2007 schedule include:
 |
Goodson |
"Come Sunday," scheduled Tuesday,
Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m., Pease Auditorium, is a program of unusual
instrumental chamber music. It will include works by Charles
Ives, Duke Ellington and Astor Piazzolla. Faculty pianist
Kathryn Goodson performs with guest violinist Gabriel Bolkosky,
artistic director of the Phoenix Ensemble; and bass trombonist
Randall Hawes of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Master
classes are scheduled with Hawes at 2 p.m. in room 105,
and with Bolkosky at 3 p.m. in room 106.
The EMU Dance Program presents its 53rd annual faculty
and guest artist dance concert, "Arcs and Orbits," Friday,
Jan. 19, and Saturday, Jan 20, 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Jan.
21, 2 p.m., Quirk Theatre. Dance faculty Sherry Jerome,
Joanna McNamara and Julianne O'Brien Pendersen team up
with guest artists Wendy Du Bois, Amy Cova, Holly Hobbs
and Tom Smith to create dances in a wide range of moods
and styles, including modern dance, ballet and jazz, performed
by student dancers. Tickets, available in advance, are
$10 for general admission and $8 for students with ID.
Celebrating its 13th year, Quorum
Chamber Arts Collective continues to bring a fresh image to the changing face of
contemporary music performance. With its unique instrumentation
of clarinet, percussion, piano, saxophone and violin, the
quintet brings new timbral combinations to works by the
most vital composers of our time. In their EMU debut, Quorum
presents works of Evan Chambers, Roshanne Etezady, William
Albright and Anton Webern Thursday, Jan. 23, 8 p.m., Pease
Auditorium.
Professors Willard Zirk, horn, and Garik
Pedersen, piano,
collaborate in the final concert of the Horn History Series,
with music written for Willard Zirk and his friends Friday,
Feb. 9, 7:30 p.m., Pease Auditorium. Composition students
of Anthony Iannaccone are currently competing for the
honor of having their work premiered at this concert.
The evening concludes with a comic surprise.
 |
STRING MUSIC: The Arianna String
Quartet
performs Sunday, Feb. 11, at 4
p.m. in Pease Auditorium. |
Violinists John McGrosso and David Gillham, violist Robert
Meier and cellist Kurt Baldwin return to campus for a memorable
performance by the award-winning Arianna
String Quartet.
The program includes Beethoven's "Quartet in F major," Shostakovich's "Quartet
No. 1" and Haydn's "Quartet in D minor." This concert is
presented Sunday, Feb. 11, 4 p.m., Pease Auditorium, by
the Friends of Chamber Music at Pease.
"Music Now Fest '07," features works
of Lawrence Dillon, composer-in- residence at North Carolina
School of the Arts. Dillon's extensive body of works is
characterized by a keen sensitivity to color, mastery of
form, compelling depth and energetic fervor.
 |
Dillon |
This year's 15th biennial new music festival, scheduled
Feb. 21-23, displays the collective talents of EMU's music
faculty and students during three days of concerts, recitals,
lectures, discussions and open rehearsals showcasing works
of Dillon and other contemporary composers.
Many of EMU's finest undergraduate music majors compete
for scholarship honors as they perform in the Barry
Manilow Competition, a prestigious annual recital
competition Friday, March 9, 4 p.m., Pease Auditorium.
Pianists Anne Beth Gajda and Garik Pedersen present "Gone
Fishin'" Sunday, March 18, 4 p.m., Pease Auditorium.
The program consists of piano music for two and four hands
by Debussy, Dvorak, Grieg, Liszt and Mendelssohn. Bring
your whole family to enjoy a day on the water. In consideration
of the young people in attendance, this concert will be
no more than one hour in length.
Faculty cellists Diane L. Winder and Peter Opie, EMU students,
alumni, and area students and teachers perform works for
cello ensemble and cello orchestra at "Cellopalooza" Sunday,
March 25, 7 p.m., Pease Auditorium. Featured repertoire
includes a premiere composition for multiple cellists by
alumna Laurie Jarski and works by Gould, Klengel and Francaix.
 |
ALL THAT JAZZ: Al Townsend's The
Couriers will headline the Jazz
Benefit Dinner Dance April 21 in
the EMU Student Center. |
The Department of Music and Dance welcomes the Ann
Arbor Symphony Orchestra to the stage of Pease
Auditorium Sunday, April 15, 8 p.m., in the first concert
of a new collaborative venture. The program includes "Remembering
Gatsby," by
Harbison; Haydn's "Violin Concerto," with soloist Aaron
Berofsky; Bernstein's "West Side Story: Symphonic Dances;" and "Symphonic
Dances," by Rachmaninoff.
Dance with the stars at
the 2007 annual Jazz Benefit Dinner
Dance Saturday,
April 21, 6 p.m., at the newly opened EMU Student Center.
Al Townsend's The Couriers will perform. Proceeds fund
the Al Townsend Endowed Scholarship for jazz studies at
EMU. The admission price of $60 per person includes food
and dancing. Reserved tickets are required. For more information,
contact 487-0277.
 |
Vermeer Quartet |
The Vermeer Quartet, consisting of violinists
Shmuel Ashkenasi and Mathias Tacke; Richard Young, viola;
and Marc Johnson, cello; perform their final Michigan concert
as part of their U.S. farewell tour, after nearly four
decades of performing together. The program, scheduled
Sunday, May 6, 4 p.m., in Pease Auditorium, includes Mozart's "Quartet
in B-flat major," Janacek's "Quartet No. 1" and Beethoven's "Quartet
in A minor." This concert is presented by Friends of Chamber
Music.
For a full schedule of events, visit www.emich.edu/musicdance ,
or call the events hotline, 487-2255.
