[370] March 29 Concert Closes Stones River Chamber Players' Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2010
CONTACT: Tim Musselman, 615-898-2493, or tmusselm@mtsu.edu

MARCH 29 CONCERT CLOSES STONES RIVER CHAMBER PLAYERS’ SEASON
Free & Open Performance Touted as a ‘No-Piano Zone,’ Report Organizers

(MURFREESBORO)—The Stones River Chamber Players, the resident chamber music ensemble at MTSU, will present “Piano Forbidden,” the final concert of its 2009-10 season at 7:30 p.m. March 29 in the T. Earl Hinton Music Hall in the Wright Music Building.
“The program explores the world of chamber music without piano, including works by Mozart, Handel, Vaughan Williams, Richard Strauss and Varèse,” said Lynn Rice-See, piano professor at MTSU and co-director of the group.
The SRCP will perform Flute Quartet in D Major by W. A. Mozart; Trio Sonata No. 4 in F Major by G. F. Handel; Three Vocalises by Ralph Vaughan Williams; Octandre, or Octet, by Edgard Varèse; and Till Eulenspiegel-einmal anders!, an arrangement by Franz Hasenohrl of Richard Strauss’ tone poem.
Regarding the Mozart quartet, Rice-See said Mozart, early in his adult career, composed four flute quartets for flute, violin, viola and cello. This quartet dating from 1777 will be performed by Deanna Little, flute; Andrea Dawson, violin; Clare Yang, viola; and Xiao-Fan Zhang, cello.
“The Baroque ‘trio sonata’ (by Handel) features two soprano instruments with continuo; in this case, a harpsichord and a bassoon,” Rice-See said.
George T. Riordan, director of the school of music and one of the oboist for this work, said, “Late in life, George Frideric Handel—arguably the most famous composer of his day—told an admirer that the six trio sonatas for two oboes and continuo were written by him at a very early age … when he ‘wrote like the devil, and chiefly for oboe, which was my favorite instrument.’
“Perhaps he took some artistic license in declaring that these were such youthful pieces,” continued Riordan, who added “while all six sonatas display a joyous buoyancy, they also bear evidence of mature craftsmanship. However, the music makes it clear that the oboe indeed was a favorite instrument of the composer.”
Other performers on this work include Laura Ann Ross, oboe; Sandra Arndt, harpsichord; and Maya Stone, bassoon.
“The Vaughan Williams Three Vocalises are from a small category of text-less vocal music, in this case with clarinet,” Rice-See said.
Tenor Stephen Smith, referring to this work, said, “The piano continues to be my favorite instrument with which to sing, but I often find it very interesting to explore other possibilities. That is why (this work) for clarinet and voice intrigued me. I have actually never performed a duet with a clarinet, and I have discovered during rehearsals with (Waldecker) that the timbres of the voice and the clarinet often make for fascinating colors. Somehow, and I'm not at all sure just why, the piece simply makes sense.”
Another work, the Varèse octet, is scored for a mixed ensemble. Conducted by Reed Thomas, the piece will be performed by Little (flute), Ross (oboe); Waldecker (clarinet) and Stone (bassoon), with Michael Arndt (trumpet), Angela DeBoer (horn), David Loucky (trombone) and Tim Pearson (bass).
The finale of the concert, described by Rice-See as the rollicking Till Eulenspiegel-einmal anders!, will be performed by Dawson, Waldecker, Stone, DeBoer and Pearson.
The March 29 performance is free and open to the public. For more information or other MTSU School of Music concerts, please visit mtsumusic.com or call 615-898-2493
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With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.