A unique concert will be offered by guest pianist Dennis Thurmond Tuesday, March 23, 7:30 p.m., at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall, UTC Fine Arts Center. Thurmond will present “400 Years of Keyboard Improvisation.” The concert will be free and open to the public free of charge.
Thurmond will be performing improvised pieces in each of the major historical musical genres. The UTC composition students have written melodies that fit the parameters of the various style periods which will be handed to the pianist for the first time at the concert. Thurmond will use the melody as a source to improvise a piece in the appropriate style.
On Wednesday, March 24, Thurmond will present an improvisation workshop for pianists at 11: a.m. -1 p.m. in Cadek Recital Hall. He will then do a masterclass with the Music Department piano majors from 4-6 p.m. in Roland Hayes Concert Hall at the Fine Arts Center. The public is invited to observe any of these events.
Thurmond, a native Tennessean, is the director of piano pedagogy and a specialist in Electronic Music. He was formerly the chairman of the music synthesis department and class piano program at the Berklee College of Music, and he was also a Teaching Fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.
On Thursday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m., the UTC Viola Ensemble directed by adjunct faculty member Floy Wang will present an all-viola recital in Cadek Recital Hall. The concert will feature each of the eight violists in Wang’s studio and will culminate with a massed performance of the Telemann Concerto in G Major. This challenging program includes music from composers Johan Wenzel Kalliwoda, Fritz Seitz, J.S. Bach, Franz Anton Hoffmeister, and others. The UTC Viola Studio is comprised of a diverse group of students involved in a variety of major programs and activities around campus. There are two music majors, one music minor, and the rest of the students are from various schools in the university.
Also on Thursday, March 25th, 7:30 p.m., Roland Hayes Concert Hall, UTC Fine Arts Center, experience an interesting and experimental piece of new music in an innovative kind of concert setting. Trio Tresillo is an innovative instrumental trio that plays new and eclectic music. Headlining this concert is the world premier of local composer Tim Hinck’s “Old Man with Turnip.” The trio will play music by Jacques Ibert, Libby Larsen, and Kirk O’Riordan. This concert is structured after Hinck’s philosophy that for concert music to connect with today’s audiences, the format must be shorter, the atmosphere more relaxed, and the content must be more powerful, visceral, and experimental.
Hinck’s new piece is currently being staged with the help of two visual artists and a dancer who will add visual and multimedia elements to the performance. This 12-minute piece is a sort of dark comedy dealing with a range of human emotions and experience.
This performance is free and open to the public.
