Master Players Concert Series
Ninth annual UD Master Players Concert Series to open in September
2:53 p.m., Sept. 10, 2012--The 2012-13 University of Delaware Master Players Concert Series (MPCS), a flagship professional music presenter in the region, will open in September. The new concert season, which includes a Faculty Gala, Holiday Pops and the popular iMusic event, will feature many of today’s leading concert artists.
“With quality in mind, I have planned a rich season featuring both new and returning artists performing cherished favorites. And, for the first time in MPCS history, we have commissioned world premier compositions written especially for our concert goers,” said Xiang Gao, MPCS’s founding artistic director and Trustees Distinguished Professor of Music at UD. “I promise you this much: These quality music sensations will move you, regardless of your musical background, and these live concert experiences on our beautiful and safe campus will make you feel fortunate for being in the Newark and greater Wilmington area.”
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As part of UD’s Initiative for the Planet in the Path to Prominence strategic plan, MPCS is becoming a “paperless series” to help protect the environment.
A newly designed Backstage Tour on the refreshed MPCS website will feature program information, artists’ comments and video interviews on each web page concerning the concerts.
This will not only save trees by cutting the paper consumption in concert program books, which most people have trouble reading in low light, but will give the general audience an idea of what the artists truly think about the composition and the composers prior to the exciting live performances they will give on stage.
The Backstage Tour for the opening Faculty Gala on Sept. 21 will be live on Sept. 15.
Tickets are available for purchase at the REP Box Office in the Roselle Center for the Arts on UD’s Newark campus, by calling 302-831-2204 or by sending email to cfa-boxoffice@udel.edu. To order single or season subscription tickets by mail with discount, visit the MPCS website.
Friday, Sept. 21, Faculty Gala, 8 p.m., Mitchell Hall. Every year, UD faculty performers remind MPCS audiences that the Department of Music is filled with impressive concert artists. This popular event, a 25-year-old Newark tradition, kicks off the new season year after year to celebrate the excellence in art on campus.
The evening includes appearances by the UD brass faculty John David Smith, horn; Bruce Tychinski, trombone; Robert Skoniczin, trumpet; and Brian Brown, tuba. Tom Palmer and Julie Nishimura will play a two-piano piece, and featured will be Sara Seglem-Hocking, soprano; Anne Sullivan, harp; and UD Faculty Jazz with Todd Groves, saxophone; Harvey Price, percussion; Tom Palmer, drums; and Craig Thomas, bass.
Other performances include Rob Brandt, baritone, singing Billy Bigelow’s Soliloquy from Carousel; Christine Delbeau, piano, and Esme Allen-Creighton, viola, performing Morpheus by Rebecca Clarke; the Taggart-Grycky Duo playing Sonata by Robert Di Marino; and members of Serafin String Quartet, Kate Ransom, violin; Esme Allen-Creighton, viola; and Lawrence Stomberg, cello, playing Serenade Op. 10 by Ernö Dohnanyi.
Saturday, Oct. 20, 3 B’s Homecoming event, 8 p.m., Gore Recital Hall, Roselle Center for the Arts. The concert will showcase Xiang Gao and Julie Nishimura in a violin-piano recital featuring masterpieces by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms on the Boorse collection, concert violins crafted by many of today’s leading violinmakers.
In the concert, which will be held during UD’s Homecoming Weekend, the two artists will collaborate on some of the most celebrated compositions ever written for the violin and piano, including Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor and Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor.
The concert celebrates Gao as the 2012 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Masters Artist Fellow.
Friday, Nov. 16, Kantrio, Great Musical Families Recital Series, 8 p.m., Gore Recital Hall, Roselle Center for the Arts. MPCS launches another innovative chamber concert, this time celebrating the first families of music in the Great Musical Families Recital Series. Many master musicians come from large musical families, and when they make music together on stage, that family connection inspires the magic of music come to life in a truly unforgettable way.
This event will feature one of today’s most visible musical families as Paul and Timothy Kantor and Virginia Weckstrom perform masterpieces for the violin, viola and piano by Mozart, Bartok and Shostakovich, among others. Paul Kantor, violin teacher and mentor to Gao, makes his second MPCS appearance.
In conjunction with the concert, three free master classes will be offered from 1:25-2:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 16. Timothy Kantor will lead a violin master class in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building, Paul Kantor a violin and viola master class in Gore Recital Hall and Weckstrom a piano and chamber music master class in Puglisi Orchestra Hall of the Roselle Center for the Arts.
Saturday, Dec. 8, Holiday Pops – A Family Concert, 3 p.m., Mitchell Hall. The third annual MPCS Holiday Concert, an afternoon event designed especially for families, guarantees to be an unforgettable musical experience, not to mention a wonderful addition to 2012 holiday festivities.
The pops concert features the UD Chamber Orchestra and many interactive performances, including Toy Symphony by Leopold Mozart; Spectacular Clarinets, Strings’ Attack!, Three Shanties and Dr. Smith’s Horns for the young audiences; and a medley of familiar holiday classics.
Following the concert, MPCS will hold an “instrument petting zoo” in Gore Hall, next to Mitchell Hall on The Green, from 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 23, Mostly Mozart II, 8 p.m., Mitchell Hall. Last season’s Mostly Mozart! premiered to a sold-out audience, so MPCS is presenting an encore. The second installment features guest artists Jonathan Carney, violinist, violist and concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; concert pianist Jeffrey Sharkey, director of the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University; Allison Wells, British concert cellist; and Gao performing brilliant chamber music compositions by Mozart.
These world-class artists also will perform Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G Minor with the famous “gypsy” finale.
Sharkey, a Newark native, returns to MPCS for his second appearance to host the event and share his success story, as well as his personal interpretation of the music of Mozart and Brahms.
Free master classes will be offered from 3:30-5 p.m., Friday, Feb. 22.
Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16, Six and 6ix – A New Music Event, 8 p.m., Gore Recital Hall. This concert will feature world premier performances of six compositions commissioned by MPCS and composed by international composers for the world-class MPCS ensemble-in-residence, 6ixwire Project, and many MPCS guest artists.
MPCS showcases its uncompromised commitment not only to presentation and education, but to musical creation by commissioning new works that will be born on the stage of MPCS for the enjoyment of generations to come.
This program is made possible in part by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts
An open rehearsal and meet-the-composers session, hosted by UD faculty composer Jennifer Margaret Barker, will be held in Gore Recital Hall on Thursday, March 14, from 3-5:30 p.m. It is free.
Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 20, iMusic 6: Languages of the World, 8 p.m., Mitchell Hall. The sixth annual multi-disciplinary iMusic event will feature artists and scholars from many fields around the world.
Gao invites these guests to collaborate in creating and performing an original concert production. It takes the team 10 months to create this grand season finale, complete with artistic elements that will take your breath away and challenge your imagination.
The event also celebrates the 90th anniversary of UD’s study abroad program — the oldest in the country — under UD’s Institute for Global Studies, with delightful surprises to showcase UD’s excellence in international education and cultural offerings.
Ticket information
The state-of-the-art Gore Recital Hall only seats 200 and those interested in attending are encouraged to purchase their tickets in advance. MPCS tickets cost $25 for the general public; $20 for senior citizens, UD faculty, staff and alumni; and $10 for students with ID. Tickets are available at the REP box office in the Roselle Center for the Arts, telephone 302-831-2204.
For more information about MPCS, see the website.
Photo by Evan Krape