Coleidoscope to feature music of Busch, Higdon, Williams
January 27, 2016
The SFA School of Music will present Coleidoscope at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7, in Cole Concert Hall. The performance features SFA music faculty members, from left, Geneva Fung, Sherri Fleshner, Evgeni Raychev, Nathan Nabb, Melissa Nabb, Jennifer Dalmas and Carlos Gaviria.
The faculty recital is part of the Cole Performing Arts Series and features chamber music for saxophone, strings and piano. The program explores a number of interesting chamber music combinations, according to Dr. Jennifer Dalmas, associate professor of violin and viola in the School of Music.
Among the selections to be performed is the Quintet for Saxophone and String Quartet by Adolf Busch.
"This is an interesting and substantial piece in the saxophone/strings chamber music repertoire," Dalmas said, "and its compositional style is firmly rooted in the German Romantic tradition." Although it was written in 1925, it was not published until the 1980s.
"Dash" by contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon is a one-movement piece originally written for flute, clarinet and piano.
"The version we will perform features saxophone, violin and piano," Dalmas said. "This short piece is appropriately named, as all instruments race in scale patterns and repeated figures, creating a sense of urgency throughout."
Also featured will be "Six Studies in English Folksongs" by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Written in 1926, the work is "a charming set of pieces originally composed for cello and piano that has been transcribed effectively for saxophone and string quintet," Dalmas said.
"The Coleidoscope concert, as always, is lovingly dedicated to Ed Cole, for whom the series is named," she said. "A reception in Ed Cole's honor will be held after the concert."
Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.