University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: September 28, 2006

By PHILIP E. REHARD
Reporter Contributor

The Department of Music will present a full schedule of concerts during October, including a performance on Oct. 6 by the Colorado String Quartet to open the 51st season of the Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle.

The Colorado String Quartet will open the 51st season of the Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle with a concert on Oct. 6

Among the other performances scheduled during the month are a program of two lesser-known concertos by Barraqué and Beethoven; faculty recitals by percussionist Anthony Miranda, pianist Stephen Manes and vocalist Alexander Hurd; and the second concert in the Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle, performed by the Avalon String Quartet.

The concert by the Colorado String Quartet at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus, will mark the quartet's fifth appearance at UB, the most recent one in 2003. Following the program, audience members are invited to a reception for the artists in the Slee Hall lobby hosted by Kappa Kappa Psi, UB's band fraternity,

The Colorado quartet also will present a master class at 11 a.m. Oct. 7 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus. The class is free of charge and open to the public.

Throughout its nearly 25-year career, the quartet's performances have been noted for their musical integrity, impassioned playing and lyrical finesse. Winners in 1983 of both the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the Colorado String Quartet regularly performs the complete Beethoven quartets, and in the summer of 2006 performed all the Schubert quartets at the Newport Chamber Music Festival.

The Avalon String Quartet will present the second concert in the six-concert Slee/Beethoven Cycle at 8 p.m. Oct. 27 in Lippes Concert Hall. A reception will be held in the Slee lobby following the program.

Tickets for the performances by the Colorado and Avalon string quartets are $12 for the general public; $9 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, senior citizens and WNED members with card; and $5 for students.

Formed at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival 11 years ago, the Avalon String Quartet came to the forefront after participating in Isaac Stern's Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall in 1997. Stern subsequently invited the quartet to perform in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem and later presented the ensemble's Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall.

The quartet won the Grand Prize at the 1998 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, First Prize at the 1999 Concert Artists Guild Competition and the highest prize awarded at the 2000 ARD Competition in Munich.

UB's Center for 21st Century Music will follow up its successful Sept. 18 inaugural concert featuring legendary composer Philip Glass by presenting an unusual and intriguing program of two concertos at 8 p.m. Oct. 17 in Lippes Concert Hall. Guest conductor Harvey Sollberger will lead the Slee Sinfonietta, UB's resident professional chamber orchestra, and soloists in a program that presents concertos by Jean Barraqué and Ludwig van Beethoven—two composers from very different time periods.

The Barraqué program, an odd orchestral set-up composed of six trios placed at different locations on stage, will feature as soloists Jean Kopperud, clarinet, and James Baker, vibraphone, both members of the New York New Music Ensemble and regular guests of UB's annual June in Buffalo festival.

The Beethoven program will feature the Baird Trio—UB faculty members Stephen Manes, piano; Movses Pogossian, violin; and Jonathan Golove, cello—performing the "Triple Concerto," one of Beethoven's less frequently performed works.

Program annotator Marc McAneny and guests will be on stage at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the pieces to be performed.

Tickets are $12 for the general public; $9 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, senior citizens and WNED members with card; and $5 for students.

UB faculty members Anthony Miranda and Stephen Manes have succeeded in making a mark in the musical world locally, nationally and internationally.

Miranda is recognized as one of America's foremost exponents of the drum set as a multiple percussion solo instrument. He is an endorser for Regal Tip Inc., Sabian Cymbal Ltd., Kori Marimba Co. and the Yamaha Drum Corp. In 1996, Regal Tip honored him with a signature stick line, and in 1998, he was awarded the prestigious title of International Percussionist of the Year. A classical percussion performer and teacher, he also has performed with such popular artists as Gladys Knight, Madonna, Tom Jones, Johnny Mathis and Englebert Humperdinck, among others. His active studio-recording career has placed him on many films, albums, network television shows and commercials.

Manes, who is undertaking his third-ever presentation of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas in eight concerts this season at UB, is equally distinguished, although his reputation is confined more to classical music circles. He has performed with the Pittsburgh, National, Detroit, Baltimore and Denver symphonies—and at the Boston Esplanade—under such notable conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Sergiu Comissiona, Neville Marriner, Arthur Fieder and Semyon Bychkov. He has appeared in most major U.S. cities, as well as in such European centers as London, West Berlin, Amsterdam, the Hague and Vienna.

Both artists will perform in Lippes Concert Hall in October. Miranda will present a percussion recital at 8 p.m. Oct. 20, while Manes will present "Waldstein," the second concert in the Beethoven piano sonata cycle, at 8 p.m. Oct. 23. Tickets for Miranda's concert are $5 for general admission; UB students are free with valid ID. Tickets for Manes' performance are $10 for the general public and $5 for UB students with ID.

Another UB faculty member, baritone Alexander Hurd, will join Buffalo native and mezzo-soprano Alison Tupay in a special voice recital at 8 p.m. Oct. 25 in Lippes Concert Hall.

The first half of the program will include selected art songs by such composers as Clara Schumann and Fernando Obradors. The second half of the program will feature opera arias and duets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The program will conclude when Hurd and Tupay are joined by pianists Jacob Greenberg and Alison d'Amato in a presentation of Leonard Bernstein's last work, "Arias and Barcarolles" for mezzo-soprano, baritone and piano four-hands.

Tickets are $5 for the general public and free for UB students with ID.

A Williamsville native, Tupay earned a bachelor's degree from Boston University, a master's degree from the Juilliard School and an Artist Diploma from the Juilliard Opera Center. She was a national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a study grant winner of the Licia-Albanese Puccini Foundation.

A frequent performer in concert and opera performances throughout the United States and Europe, Hurd also is the recipient of the 2005 Joy in Singing Award, winner of the second prize in the 2004 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and winner of the first prize in the Vocal Arts Resource Network Song Competition.

His performance of Philip Glass� "Songs of Milarepa" with the

Slee Sinfonietta during the inaugural concert of the Center for 21st Century Music was well-received.

More Mozart will be in store for music lovers when the Music Forum for Piano Teachers of Western New York joins with the Department of Music to present a recital by local fortepianist Karen Schmid at 2 p.m. Oct. 28 in Baird Recital Hall.

In order to give local piano enthusiasts a better understanding of the fortepiano, workshops will be held at 10 a.m. for younger children and at 5 p.m. for older children and adults in Baird Recital Hall.

Tickets are $8 and will provide patrons entry to the recital and one or both workshops.

Presented in honor of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, the day's events are designed to give concertgoers a glimpse of the only piano Mozart knew and to hear the sound he heard when composing his piano works. Schmid will discuss the instrument during the workshops. Afterward, a handful of individuals will be given an opportunity to play the instrument.

For further information, contact Schmid at 877-3406.

Schmid has performed nationally and internationally in recital, as a soloist and in master classes. A Buffalo native and resident, she became interested in the fortepiano while a piano performance major at Oberlin Conservatory. After receiving her bachelor's degree, she earned master's degree in piano from the Juilliard School. After graduation, she studied fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson of Cornell University. She then built her own fortepiano, a replica of a 1774 Stein, and began touring.

Tickets for all Department of Music concerts are available at the Slee Hall box office from 9 a.m. to 4 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 outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.