Music to present ‘keyboard extravaganza’

UB faculty members Eric Huebner and Roland E. Martin will lead off a “keyboard extravaganza,” three distinct recitals featuring keyboard instruments presented by the Department of Music during the month of February.

All concerts will take place in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus. 

Huebner, assistant professor of music, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9. His recital will feature works by Messiaen and Stravinsky, culminating in Stravinsky’s own arrangement of “The Rite of Spring” (premiered in 1913) for piano four hands, to be performed with one of his students, Nicholas Emmanuel.

Martin, adjunct instructor in the Department of Music, will perform at 3 p.m. Feb. 10. Martin’s recital, with harpsichordist Jane Cary, will feature works performed on harpsichord, organ, piano and virginal. The full program has yet to be announced.

Huebner has drawn worldwide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music since making his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17. In January 2012, he was appointed pianist of the New York Philharmonic and has been featured in works by Lindberg, Stravinsky, Ives, Milhaud and R. Strauss among others.

Huebner also is a member of Antares, a prize-winning quartet comprised of clarinet, violin, cello and piano that appears regularly in major chamber music venues throughout the country.

Martin, who also serves on the faculties of the Buffalo Seminary, Daemen College and Canisius College, is organist and director of music at St. Joseph University Church in Buffalo and music director of the Freudig Singers. He received the Buffalo and Erie County Arts Council Award for Outstanding Individual Artist in 2008.

The extravaganza will continue the following weekend with a performance by French organist Michel Bouvard at 5 p.m. Feb. 17. Co-sponsored by the Buffalo Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, Bouvard will perform works by Felix Mendelssohn and a number of French composers, including César Frank, Maurice Duruflé and his grandfather, Jean Bouvard.

Michel Bouvard also will teach a master class, open to the public, at 10 a.m. Feb. 16, also in Lippes Concert Hall.

One of today’s leading French concert organists, Michel Bouvard enjoys a multi-faceted career as a concert artist and master teacher that has taken him to more than 20 countries.

In addition to his performing and teaching, he frequently serves as an adjudicator for the world’s most prestigious organ competitions. He also has served for four years as a member of the Commission Supérieure des Monuments Historiques (Culture Ministry) of France.

Bouvard currently is a professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory.

Tickets for each of the three recitals are $10 for general admission and $5 for faculty/staff/alumni and senior citizens. The two faculty recitals—Huebner and Martin—are free for UB students with a valid ID; student admission to the Bouvard concert is $5.

Tickets are available at the Slee Hall box office, the Center for the Arts box office or online at tickets.com.