Archives
Baritone Alexander Hurd to present first UB faculty recital
By AMY GREENAN
Reporter Contributor
A Second-Prize winner in the 2004 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, baritone Alexander Hurd will present his first recital as a UB faculty member at 8 p.m. Feb. 17 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.
Guitarist Jason Vieaux will perform at 8 p.m. Feb. 26 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall.
UB pianist Jacob Greenberg will accompany Hurd in a program of 20th century art songs that includes works by Schoenberg and Ravel.
The faculty recitals will continue with a performance by cellist Jonathan Golove at 8 p.m. Feb. 21 in Lippes Hall. Golove has crafted a recital program that incorporates both early and contemporary music. Cellist (and wife) Mary Artmann will join him in a Boccherini sonata; UB pianist and fellow Baird Trio member Stephen Manes will accompany him on Malepiero's 1942 "Sonatina."
The Department of Music will close out its concert schedule for February with a performance by Jason Vieaux, one of the most highly acclaimed and sought-after guitarists of his generation.
Vieaux will perform at 8 p.m. Feb. 26 in Lippes Hall. Vieaux will work with UB composition students in a reading session, which will be free and open to the public, at 2 p.m. Feb. 28 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus. He also will perform two Vivaldi concerti for guitar with the Slee Sinfonietta, UB's professional chamber orchestra, at 8 p.m. March 1 in Lippes Hall.
Alexander Hurd, who joined the UB music faculty this past fall as an assistant professor and director of the Opera Studio, has performed throughout the United States and Europe in concert and opera. Recent performances have include George Crumb's "A Journey Beyond Time" with Speculum Musicae at New York's Merkin Hall; the role of Starveling in Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Tanglewood; "Ein deutsches Requiem" with the Lebanon Symphony Orchestra; the role of Lorenzo in the Italian premiere of Dominic Argento's "Casanova's Homecoming;" the world premiere of Carlo Deri's song cycle "Italy" at the Festival Pucciniano in Torre del Lago, Italy; Crumb's "Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death;" and the regional premiere of John Musto's "River Songs" in Cincinnati.
Hurd traveled to Slovenia in April 2003, funded by a CEC International Partners ArtsLink Grant, to present a series of recitals and lectures on 20th-century American art song. The recipient of a Fulbright fellowship, he studied the Lied repertoire in Stuttgart, Germany. He also has received fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center.
His opera credits include Guglielmo in "Così fan tutte;" Chris the Citizen, Thaddeus Stevens and Ulysses S. Grant in "The Mother of Us All;" Presto in "Les Mamelles de Tirésias;" and Jess in Carlisle Floyd's "Slow Dusk."
A graduate of Oberlin College, he holds bachelor's degrees in modern European history and voice performance, as well as a master's degree in voice performance from the University of Cincinnati.
An assistant professor in the Department of Music, Jonathan Golove is a member of the Baird Trio, artists-in-residence at UB, and has been featured as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Slee Sinfonietta.
He currently is on the faculty at the Rocky Ridge Music Center and is a former member of the Eastman School of Music faculty.
He also is active as an electric cellist, both as a recitalist and in the field of creative improvised music.
Golove received his doctorate in composition from UB, and his works have been performed in a variety of locations in North America and Europe by such ensembles as VOXNOVA, the Ensemble Court Circuit, the Amherst Saxophone Quartet, Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble and the Instrumental Factor. In fact, two of his chamber works will receive their world premieres this season in Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall.
He has received commissions, awards and grants for his works from such organizations as ASCAP, the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, Meet the Composer and the Darius Milhaud Society. His opera (in progress) Red Harvest was commissioned by the European Academy of Music and received its premiere in Festival of Lyric Art of Aix-en-Provence in 1998.
Jason Vieaux began guitar studies at the age of eight in Buffalo. He first gained international recognition in 1992 when he became the youngest First-Prize winner in the history of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Competition. This culminated with a 53-city solo tour throughout the U.S., with numerous return invitations. He is a Naumburg International Guitar Competition prizewinner and a recipient of the Cleveland Institute of Music's Alumni Achievement Award.
In 1995, Vieaux was honored as an Artistic Ambassador of the United States to Southeast Asia, performing in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma).
As a passionate advocate of new music, Vieaux has premiered works by José Luis Merlin, Eric Sessler, Arthur Hernandez and Fazil Say, and has performed concertos by Allen Krantz, Augusta Read-Thomas and John Corigliano.
In addition to performing, Vieaux is dedicated to teaching, serving as head of the Guitar Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music—he is the youngest department head to serve at the prestigious conservatory.
He also has been affiliated with Philadelphia-based Astral Artistic Services since 1996.
Tickets for all UB faculty recitals, including the performances by Hurd and Golove, are $5; UB students are free with ID. Tickets for Vieaux's solo recital, as well as his performance with the Slee Sinfonietta are $12 for general admission, $9 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, senior citizens and WNED members with a card, and $5 for students.
All UB concert tickets may be purchased at the Slee Hall box office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, at the Center for the Arts box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.