Starting Tuesday, the Patron of the Arts program will present a series of concerts and recitals performed by the music faculty of UTRGV.
The presentations will start at 7:30 p.m. and will continue through Saturday, taking place in either the Texas Southmost College Arts Center in Brownsville or the Performing Arts Complex in Edinburg.
On Tuesday night in Edinburg, Lecturer Dino Mulić, a pianist and co-founder/co-director of the Sarajevo Chamber Music Festival, will present a recital written for piano and bassoon. Performing on the bassoon will be guest artist Scott Pool, who serves as a bassoon professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
The recital is composed of seven pieces by different composers, starting with “Do Not Sing, My Beauty” by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
“It tells the story of a broken soul who, as he listens to a beautiful singer, begs her ‘Do Not Sing, My Beauty’ because he cannot bear the remembrance of his lost love”, Mulić said.
Pool, who is a first-time guest in a Patron of the Arts event, and Mulić will perform recently discovered pieces for bassoon and piano by Croatian composer Boris Papandopulo.
“I was dying to learn the pieces, so this was a perfect opportunity to me to find someone who … plays two pieces,” Mulić said.
Tickets for adults cost $10 and $5 for students and seniors.
William Haugeberg, assistant professor of low brass, will present a solo trombone recital. Pianist and Lecturer Eric Jenkins will be his accompanist. The event will take place on Wednesday in Brownsville.
Haugeberg will present a variety of styles and eras of trombone solo literature.
“This is basically a representation of my scholarly research and work that I’ve done for the year,” Haugeberg said.
During the presentation, Haugeberg and Jenkins will perform trombone pieces by German, American, French and Belgium composers. The recital will end with a solo by the American composer Arthur Pryor circa 1904, a turn-of-the-century showcase work for the trombone.
“Arthur Pryor was one of the first soloists that we had, so it’s gonna go through all the eras, and all the literature like that,” Haugeberg said.
Admission is free to this event.
On Thursday in Brownsville, soprano and former Patron of the Arts Program Coordinator Catherine Compton and pianist and Lecturer Allan Armstrong will present a recital of American composers and poets, titled “My People: Songs and Stories of American Lives.”
During the concert, photographs and artwork by various artists who reflect the American experience will be shown on a screen.
“So what does it mean to be American? For everyone, or for the most part or for most people, that means being from somewhere else, and so we are gonna go through different composers and poets whose music and whose text we’ll be performing and talk about, or not necessarily talk about but show through pictures and art, some of their journeys to being and becoming American,” Compton said. “One of our poets is Emma Lazarus, who wrote the famous poem, you know, ‘Give me your tired, your poor’ that’s on the Statue of Liberty.
“One of our poets is Langston Hughes and he … has some beautiful poetry reflecting the American experience, so our goal is just kind of celebrate the richness of American culture and diversity.”
The main work on the program is a piece for voice and orchestra by Samuel Barber with texts by James Agee, titled “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.”
“It’s a masterwork, it’s a really beautiful, evocative poem and gorgeous music, scored for orchestra but we are doing it with voice and piano,” Compton said.
Other composers included in the program are Amy Beach, Charles Ives, André Previn, Jake Heggie, Ricky Ian Gordon and Lee Hoiby.
Mezzo-soprano and former UTRGV professor Nicole Asel will perform a song by Gordon, and she and Compton will sing together. Armstrong will accompany them on piano.
Tickets for adults cost $10 and $5 for students and seniors.
On Friday in Brownsville, soprano Stephanie Beinlich will present a voice recital. Beinlich will be joined by Wesley Lawrence, director of opera and an instructor of voice at the University of North Dakota, and pianist Keith Teepen, a member of the Red River Trio, for a celebration of art song. During the presentation, pieces by Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss and Tom Cipullo will be performed.
Finally, on Saturday in Edinburg, Assistant Professor Diana Seitz will present a violin recital, titled “Violin Alone: From Baroque to Blockbuster,” in which she will perform music by J.S. Bach, H. Ernst, B. Bartok and J. Corigliano.
Admission is free to both of these events.
Patron of the Arts was founded in 1984 in Brownsville with the purpose of providing the community and students of the Rio Grande Valley with opportunities for learning and enrichment by attending live events by professional guest musicians and visual artists and by providing a venue for faculty and student performances.
Since the founding of UTRGV, Patron of the Arts now includes events on both campuses.
