A program by Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra in tribute to the Anglo-American violin great Yehudi Menuhin, a collaboration between the prominent British tenor Ian Bostridge and the American jazz and classical pianist Brad Mehldau, and return engagements by pianist Yefim Bronfman and the Takács Quartet highlight the 2019-20 classical season at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center.
The season also will feature pianist Simone Dinnerstein and cellist Matt Haimovitz playing works by Beethoven and Philip Glass; the Shanghai Quartet with violinist Soovin Kim and pianist Orion Weiss playing music of Haydn, Chausson and the contemporary Chinese composer Tan Dun; and a visit by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine with pianist Volodymyr Vynnyetsky.
The new-music sextet eighth blackbird, in its 15th year of residency at UR, and the Chicago-based percussion ensemble beyond this point will head a cast of performers in “Transient Landscapes,” an electroacoustic “interactive performance installation” by composer Matthew Burtner on environmental changes and their consequences.
Other UR Music Department-sponsored programs include the university’s Schola Cantorum in a French baroque program, centering on new editions of motets by Michel Richard Delalande; organist Bruce Stevens surveying works by the “four Bs” – Buxtehude, Bruhns, Böhm and Bach – of German baroque organ music, and UR Symphony programs featuring student harpists, one playing a new harp-and-orchestra arrangement of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
The coming Modlin Center season also will feature popular, folk and world-music concerts by Marty Stuart, Béla Fleck, Leo Kottke, Taylor Mac and others; jazz performances by vocalist Jazzmeia Horn, drummer Alliston Miller’s Boom Tic Boom, pianist Alfred Rodríguez and percussionist Pedrito Martínez and vibraphonist Stefon Harris and Blackout; dance performances by the Martha Graham Dance Company and Ballet Folclórico Nacional de México de Silvia Lozano, among others; as well as theatrical programming ranging from L.A. Theatre Works in “SEVEN” and Yamato, the Drummers of Japan, in “Jhonetsu – Passion” to the acrobatic troupe Cirque Mechanics and Manual Cinema in a multimedia production of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”
The Modlin Center also will be one of the host venues of the 2020 Menuhin Competition for young violinists next May, several rounds of which will be open to the public without charge.
Twenty percent discounts on ticket prices are available for subscribers to four or more events. To obtain a season brochure or more information, call the Modlin Center box office at (804) 289-8980 or visit http://modlin.richmond.edu
Ticketed classical programs, at 7:30 p.m. in Camp Concert Hall unless listed otherwise, with non-subscriber single ticket prices:
Oct. 2
Shanghai Quartet
Soovin Kim, violin
Orion Weiss, piano
Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op. 20, No. 4; Tan Dun: Quartet No. 1 (“Feng Ya Song”); Chausson: Concert in D major, Op. 21, for violin, piano and string quartet. ($38)
Oct. 16
Simone Dinnerstein, piano
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Beethoven: Sonata TBA for cello and piano; Philip Glass: partita TBA; other works TBA by Beethoven, Glass. ($38)
Oct. 20
Ian Bostridge, tenor
Brad Mehldau, piano
Mehldau: “The Folly of Desire;” Schumann: “Dichterliebe.” ($40)
Nov. 15
Daniel Hope, violin
Zurich Chamber Orchestra
“A Tribute to Yehudi Menuhin”
J.S. Bach: Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043, for two violins; Arvo Pärt: “Darf ich;” Philip Glass: “Echorus;” Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in D minor; Vivaldi: Concerto in A minor, RV 522, for two violins; Bechara El Khoury: “Unfinished Journey;” Bartók: “Roumainian Folk Dances.” ($45)
Feb. 7 (Dominion Energy Center)
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Volodymyr Sirenko conducting
Mykola Vitaliyovych Lysenko: “Taras Bulba” Overture; Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor (Volodymyr Vynnyetsky, piano); Dvořák: Symphony No. 7 in D minor. ($44-$52)
Feb. 28
Takács Quartet
Beethoven: quartets in B flat major, Op. 18, No. 6; in C sharp minor, Op. 131; Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: Quartet in E flat major. ($38)
April 16
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Beethoven: sonatas in C minor, Op. 10, No. 1; in F major, Op. 10, No. 2; in D major, Op. 10, No. 3; in F minor, Op. 57 (“Appassionata”) ($45)
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Free classical programs from the UR Music Department, at 7:30 p.m. in Camp Concert Hall unless listed otherwise:
Sept. 11 (Jepson Theatre)
Music Faculty Gala Concert
artists and program TBA.
Oct. 4
Family Weekend Concert
artists and program TBA.
Oct. 18 (Perkinson Recital Hall, North Court)
Ingrid Keller, piano
Jonathan Ruck, cello
works TBA by Beethoven, Brahms, Stravinsky.
Nov. 3 (3 p.m.)
UR Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale
Jeffrey Riehl & David Pederson directing
Michel Richard Delalande: motets TBA; other French baroque choral works TBA; other works TBA.
Nov. 8-9 (various times & venues)
eighth blackbird
other artists TBA
Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival
programs TBA.
Nov. 18
UR Wind Ensemble
Steven Barton directing
program TBA.
Dec. 2
UR Chamber Ensembles
program TBA.
Dec. 4
UR Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kordzaia conducting
Reinhold Gliere: Harp Concerto in E flat major (Azalea Ginete, harp); Rossini: “L’Italiana in Algeri” Overture; Falla: “La vida breve” – “Spanish Dance.”
Dec. 8 (5 and 8 p.m., Cannon Memorial Chapel)
UR Schola Cantorum and Women’s Chorale
Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing
46th annual Festival of Lessons and Carols.
March 2 (Ukrop Auditorium, Robins School of Business)
Tammy L. Kernodle, speaker
Neumann Lecture on Music:
“Cry No More: Black Music and Mythology of Post-Racial America.”
March 22 (3 p.m.)
Doris Wylee-Becker, piano
works TBA by Schumann, Rachmaninoff.
March 30 (Cannon Memorial Chapel)
Bruce Stevens, organ
works TBA by Dieterich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns, Georg Böhm, J.S. Bach.
April 5 (3 p.m.)
UR Schola Cantotrum and Women’s Chorale
Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing
program TBA.
April 8
UR Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kordzaia conducting
Gershwin: “Rhapsody in Blue,” arrangement for harp and orchestra (Ian McVoy, harp); Mendelssohn: “Hebrides” Overture; Saint-Saëns: “Samson et Delila” – Bacchanale.
April 13
UR Wind Ensemble
Steven Barton directing
program TBA.
April 18 (time and location TBA)
eighth blackbird
beyond this point
Matthew Burtner, composer & ecoacoustician
other artists TBA
Burtner: “Transient Landscapes.”
April 20
UR Chamber Ensembles
program TBA.
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