Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Kármán Ensemble will perform works by Vaughan Williams, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Justin Writer when the musicians present a guest concert at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, in Cole Concert Hall on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.
The program titled “Piano Quintets Beyond the Trout!” will be presented by Er-Gene Kahng, violin; Joel Pagán, viola; Aristides Rivas, cello; George Amorim, double bass; and Janice Fehlauer, piano. The ensemble will perform Zwilich’s Quintet, which is described as blues-y piano quintet, scored for the same ensemble as Franz Schubert’s famous “Trout” Quintet, the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667. For this “blue trout” Quintet, the composer utilizes Americana musical references.
Among the other works to be performed is Writer’s “The Threshold,” which is described as a musical representation of the Kármán line, the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space. “In this short and energetic work, the Kármán line is reached when the piano, in its uppermost register, returns to the opening motive from which all the material in the piece is derived,” according to program notes. Writer is professor of music theory and composition at The University of Texas Rio Grand Valley. Ensemble members Pagán and Amorim are also on the UTRGV music faculty.
The concert will also include a performance of Williams’ Quintet in C minor, which features “big Brahmsian gestures” in the three-movement piece, inviting orchestral treatment supported by the presence of the double bass, widening the sonic scope of this composition.
Admission to the concert is free. For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.