Faculty Artist Series: Faculty Showcase Recital

Pealer Recital Hall, PAC

FSU’s Department of Music Presents Faculty Showcase Recital

Frostburg State University’s Department of Music will present its Faculty Artist Series Faculty Showcase Recital on Friday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pealer Recital Hall of FSU’s Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public. This event will also be livestreamed; click the “Join Stream” button on this page a few minutes before the recital is scheduled to begin, or any time during the recital, to view the live performance.

The recital will feature the Faculty Jazz Quintet, consisting of Dr. Donny Albrecht on trumpet, Dr. Brent Weber on saxophone, Peter Lewis on bass, Tom Harrison on guitar and Dr. Mackenzie Jacob LaMont on drums. They will perform works in remembrance of Benny Golson, an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer and arranger who recently passed away.

Weber will also play Paul Bonneau’s “Caprice en Forme de Valse.” As the saxophone is commonly associated with the jazz style, classical music for the instrument had always been lacking, so when Bonneau composed this piece for solo saxophone in 1950, it was well-received by performers and listeners of the genre. “Caprice en Forme de Valse,” however, was particularly acclaimed for having no accompaniment and for its flexibility to be performed on all members of the saxophone family. It contains typically French characteristics, including chromaticism and difficult technical passages.

Abby Lannan, on the euphonium, accompanied by Dr. Joseph Yungen on piano, will perform “Élégie, Op. 24” (1880) by French composer Gabriel Fauré. The piece was first published and performed in public in 1883 and became an immediate success. Spanning a wide range of emotions, including pathos, delicacy, virtuosity and heroics, it features a sad and somber opening and climaxes with an intense, tempestuous central section before returning to the elegiac opening theme in C minor.

Yungen will play solos on the harpsichord: “Le Vertigo” (“Vertigo”) and “La marche des Scythes” (“The March of the Scythians”) from “Premier livre de pièces de clavecin” (1746) by Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer. “Premier livre de pièces de clavecin” reveals the wide range of moods and emotions of French harpsichord music in the mid-18th century. In a similar vein to French organ music of the period, the general assumption is that the music peaked in the decades around 1700. The 14 pieces of this work include the wonderfully disorienting “Rondeau Le Vertigo” and Royer’s best-known piece, “La Marche des Scythes.”

For more information, contact FSU’s Department of Music at 301-687-4109.

Music, Performance, Recital