Music in Mind Season Opener Connects and Jumps Genres

Performances to Showcase Intersection of Folk and Classical Forms

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Andrew Zender, azender@umd.edu
(301) 405-8151

September 25, 2009 — College Park, Md. — UM School of Music kicks off its Music in Mind series with “A Wider Circle: The Spirit of Folk Music,” a unique concert that explores the influence of folk music in art music at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s Gildenhorn Recital Hall Oct. 4, 2009 at 3 p.m. Music in Mind, a series that seeks to examine points of intersection in our musical traditions – encouraging further reflection and discovery – brings together some of the most talented artists with world class faculty, outstanding alumni and students in concerts that explore the artistic possibilities of collaboration.

Featuring faculty members James Stern, Larissa Dedova, Mikhail Vokchok and Michael Votta the opening concert includes selections from Bartók’s enchanting 44 Duos for two violins; Dvorák’s original version of the ever-popular Slavonic Dances; and Baroque violinist and composer Antonio Bertali’s lively and virtuosic Chiacona for violin, organ and harpsichord.

Bartók, a lifelong collector and arranger of folk music, originally composed the 44 Duos as a progressive method of grading his students. Drawing influences from a cultural and geographical compass including Ukraine, Serbia and Hungary as well as music from the Arabic world, the 44 Duos are “challenging to the players and immensely satisfying to the listener, leaving them breathless,” according to All Music Guide.

Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances, originally written for piano four hands, has occasionally made appearances in popular culture, and Bertali’s Chiacona brings forth the immense diversity of emotions found in theatre, the primary discipline for which the composer created most of his work, according to Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. The program concludes with a rare performance of the 13-instrument Aaron Copland composition Appalachian Spring, a Pulitzer-Prize winning musical score for Martha Graham’s ballet.

Tickets are $30 for the general public and $9 for full-time students with I.D. Tickets are available by visiting www.claricesmithcenter.umd.edu or calling (301) 405-ARTS (2787). The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is located at the intersection of University Boulevard (Route 193) and Stadium Drive in College Park, on the campus of the University of Maryland. A parking garage is located across the street from the Center.

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is funded by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. Funding for the Maryland State Arts Council is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. Additional support is generously provided by a grant from the Leading College and University Presenters Program of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and by a generous grant from The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation.