Axe ’Em, Jacks!
Martha Walvoord (left) and Jack Unzicker (right)NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present the violin and double bass duet of Martha Walvoord and Jack Unzicker at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, in the Music Recital Hall in the Wright Music Building on the SFA campus.
Walvoord and Unziker, both professors of music at the University of Texas, Arlington, are married, and each enjoys an active career as a soloist and chamber musician.
Walvoord's recent solo performances have taken her to China, Hong Kong, Spain, England, Costa Rica and across the U.S., including her performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Violin Concerto" with the Quingdao Symphony Orchestra.
Unzicker is the principal double bassist of the newly formed Dallas Chamber Symphony and the Plano Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed as principal with the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, Dallas Wind Symphony and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. He regularly performs with the Dallas Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Opera.
Their SFA program will feature chamber works for the violin and double bass, an "interesting combination" in that the highest and lowest members of the string family are represented, according to Jennifer Dalmas, associate professor of violin at SFA.
"The contrast in timbres and the sonority of these instruments together will create a really enjoyable concert experience," Dalmas said.
The most well known piece for this relatively obscure chamber music combination is a Suite for Violin and Double Bass by Reinhold Gliere, a composer of the Romantic era. Other works on the program are by more contemporary composers, and Walvoord transcribed two of the works for these instruments.
Admission to the recital is free. For more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.