Be prepared for the music to linger on well after final notes have been played.
Friday night (May 5), the last concert in the well-regarded Unitarian Universalist Recital Series brings to an end 15 years of high-quality chamber music under the guidance of Marilyn Garst, series founder and organizer. Over the years, Garst has invited professional musicians from all over the region, ranging from Santa Fe to Salt Lake City, as well as most of the music faculty at Fort Lewis College.
Friday is no exception as Garst has finally secured two new FLC faculty members. Violinist Richard Silvers and pianist Holly Quist are both proud alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral program. Silvers earned his DMA in violin from Wisconsin-Madison and holds a master’s in music from Indiana University. He began his musical studies in Los Angeles in the pre-college program at the Colburn Conservatory and then attended UCLA for a bachelor’s in violin performance, graduating at the top of his class. His professional engagements have ranged over the United States and Europe. Now on the FLC music faculty teaching theory and upper strings, Silvers also plays in the San Juan Symphony and is the driving force for the newly formed FLC Chamber Orchestra.
If you go
WHAT: UUFD Recital Series: Violinist Richard Silvers and pianist Holly Quist.
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday (May 5).
WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 419 San Juan Drive.
ADMISSION: $20 adults, $8 students with ID and children, at the door.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit durangouu.org/events/recital-series; or contact Marilyn Garst at 385-8668 or mmgarst1940@gmail.com.
Early in her musical career, Quist won prizes in keyboard competitions in Michigan and performed in international music festivals here and abroad. She earned a bachelor’s degree in keyboard performance from Western Michigan University and a master’s at the University of Missouri. A month ago, Quist completed all the requirements for a DMA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. So, at the UUFD recital, you will hear “the two doctors of music” in their first performance under that moniker.
Silvers and Quist will open with Mozart’s Sonata in G Major, K. 301. It’s one of Mozart’s many early sonatas “for piano violin,” Garst said. “They were conceived as piano sonatas with violin accompaniment, a compositional practice adhered to by several other composers including Beethoven and Brahms in the German tradition.”
Transcriptions of three Spanish dances by Austrian violinist Fritz Kreisler will follow. Kreisler, who was world famous for his violin virtuosity, lived to age 87 and died in1962. He adapted three works by Spanish composers, Granados, Albeniz and de Falla, for violin and piano. Slow, complex or stirring, the dances are virtuosic pieces that will conclude the first half of the recital.
After intermission, Silvers and Quist will introduce a new work, “Romance,” by Ari Barack Fisher, for a world premiere performance.
“This piece is composed for my dear friends Richard Silvers and Holly Quist,” Fisher has said. “’Romance’ is a piece about love and what it feels like to express your feelings to one’s significant other. When writing it, the piece came to me very naturally, and the melodies rare ones that will stick with the listener upon first hearing.”
“Ari is one of my best friends,” Silvers said. “We met while pursuing our master’s degrees at Indiana University back in 2013. This is the second piece that I have commissioned by Ari, the first being a piece called ‘Sonata Eclectica, 2019.’”
The composer plans to be in Durango for the world premiere.
Brahms Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100, will close the program. Composed in 1886 during a visit to Thun, Switzerland, it has two titles: the “Thun Sonata” and “The Prize Song,” for melodic similarity to the competition song in Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger.”
“This sonata is considered to be Brahms’ most lyrical,” Garst said. “It displays a sunny disposition and a radiant optimism.”
Given this well thought-through program, audience members are sure to leave with any number of melodies that linger on.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
