Musicians at Fort Lewis College know how to tell a story, throw a party and indulge in a joke or two. This weekend’s recitals prove the point.
Friday night (Sept. 22), the FLC Artist in Residence program welcomes violist Eva Stern for an unusual event. Her evening is titled: “A Story Recital: The Dizzy Violist’s Guide to Performing” and will include three FLC faculty members: violinist Richard Silvers, cellist Katherine Jetter and pianist Lisa Campi Walters.
Given her title, violist Stern may be exploiting the especially deep repository of viola puns and parodies. Musical folklore is full of jokes, the composer-as-god or soprano-as-diva syndromes, etc. But viola jokes prevail. They are so prevalent they have sprouted a Wikipedia page. Musical slurs about the viola may have started back in the 18th century when composer Charles Avison put down the viola as merely a poor relation to both the mellow cello and the haughty violin.
That aside, Stern promises a storytelling scheme plus her three transcriptions of works originally composed for violin or cello but now played by a violist.
Silvers will join Stern in selections from “44 Duos for Two Violins,” by Bela Bartok. Campi Walters will perform with Stern in a transcription of Faure’s Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, and the duo will return to perform Bernstein’s “A Simple Song” from the composer’s Mass. After intermission, the three FLC faculty members, aka the Red Shoe Trio, will join Stern to make a foursome for Dvorak’s Piano Quartet in E Flat Major.
If you go
WHAT: Artist in Residence Recital, Violist Eva Stern.
WHEN: 3 p.m. Friday (Sept. 22).
WHERE: Roshong Recital Hall, Jones Hall, Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: $15, at the door. FLC students, and those 18 and under are free.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.fortlewis.edu/music or call 247-7087.
* * *
WHAT: Faculty Showcase Recital, Fort Lewis College Performing Arts Department.
WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Roshong Recital Hall, Jones Hall, Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: $15, at the door. FLC students, 18 and younger free.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.fortlewis.edu/music or call 247-7087.
Stern is a member of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in upstate New York, and also a movement instructor for the Norfolk Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts. She teaches Pilates to musicians in order to counteract the physical and mental stress that performers encounter. By the time of the Friday recital, her master class in stress, movement and music will have taken place at the college and student musicians will presumably be the better prepared to deal with the demands of a highly disciplined career choice.
On Sunday afternoon, the FLC Music Department will offer annual gift to the community in the form of a Faculty Showcase. It’s one of the most entertaining concerts of the year. You’ll hear a variety of musicians and music, from jazz to old Scottish border melodies. Trumpet professor Joe Nibley will play a new work humorously titled “Chunk of Plumbing.” Tenor Wes Dunnagan will sing some old but familiar English tunes with harpsichord accompaniment by Brendan Barker. Oboist Khara Wolf will perform a 20th-century piece with pianist Campi Walters. Percussion professor John O’Neal will play “A Light at the end of Chad Floyd” on the vibraphone.
Other faculty musicians will perform before saxophonist Jeff Solon and pianist Jack Maynes wrap things up with the jazzy “Embrace the Light,” by Solon the Magnificent himself. If this is the only recital you can manage to attend this semester, you will be glad you did.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
