Illinois State University School of Music faculty will showcase their artistry and talent in this semester’s Charles W. Bolen Faculty Recital Series. The recital series is named after Charles Bolen, the first dean of the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts who served in the position from 1970-1988. The Charles W. Bolen Faculty Recital Series allows students the opportunity to enjoy their professors performing as soloists and chamber musicians and brings outstanding free concerts to the campus and community.
Assistant Professor Igor Kalnin (violin) and guest artist Rochelle Sennet (piano), also known as Duo MemDi, will present a chamber recital on Saturday, September 23, at 7 p.m. in Kemp Recital Hall. The duo’s name originates from the combination of two ideals—memory and diversity. Kalnin and Sennet perform all repertoire by memory, a rare feat in chamber music. “Performing by memory gives us a more holistic understanding of composers’ ideas,” says Kalnin. The duo also focuses on discovering and commissioning music by composers from underrepresented groups, combining these with already established compositions for violin and piano. One work featured on the program is the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Irene Britton Smith, an African American composer who dedicated her life to teaching in the Chicago Public Schools system in the middle and second half of the 20th century. Also on the program is the Sonata for Violin and Piano by H. Leslie Adams, one of the most esteemed living African American composers, which showcases elements of jazz and popular American music within a formal structure that is based in the European tradition.
Professor Angelo L. Favis will perform a recital on Tuesday, September 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Kemp Recital Hall. The recital will feature music for solo guitar by 18th century Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti and 20th century Venezuelan guitarist Antonio Lauro, as well as chamber music for guitar and other instruments. Favis will be joined by fellow School of Music faculty members Anne McNamara (trumpet), Benjamin de Kock (double bass), and Cora Swenson Lee (cello) in music by Frank Campo, Annette Kruisbrink, and Stephen Goss.
On Tuesday, October 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Kemp Recital Hall, Professor Michelle Vought (soprano) and special guest Chicago drag queen Nicholas Ian (Professor Vought’s son) promise to be very entertaining and full of surprises. The performance will include various genres from art song to opera to musical theatre and will feature Rex Moore (harp) and Illinois State University alum Matthew Merz (piano). Vought will commence with French art songs followed by Ian who will join her on Monteverdi and Webber duets after performing solo himself. At intermission they will flip genders, Vought to tux and Ian to gown, with the soprano singing some of her favorite repertoire traditionally done by males while Ian follows suit in drag. Recital selections include No One Is Alone, Berlin’s Sisters, and Tesori’s The Girl in 14G.
Professor Favis returns to the stage along with Professor Kimberly McCoul Risinger as the Linden Duo on October 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kemp Recital Hall. Favis and McCoul Risinger formed the Linden Duo in 1996 to showcase the wonderful textures and timbres that are created with a flute and guitar duo. The duo will perform a Baroque sonata by Pietro Locatelli and several pieces written more recently by Shafer Mahoney and Atanas Ourkouzounov. The works of two celebrated women composers, Stacy Garrop and Chen Yi, are also featured on this program.
Professors Mark Babbitt (trombone), Midori Samson (bassoon), Katherine Lewis (viola), and the Faculty String Quartet will also perform on the Charles W. Bolen Faculty Recital Series later this semester.
For a full listing of Illinois State University School of Music events visit the University events calendar.
If you need an accommodation to fully participate in these events, please contact the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts Box Office at (309) 438-2535. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.
