Performances by the Pellegrini String Quartet and a debut recital by new faculty pianist Clara Yang will be among the highlights of the fall 2011 music season at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The season also will include a concert featuring the songs of lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman and a festival celebrating Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. Events in a Talking Music Series will bring in European artists to perform and talk to their audiences about their work.
“The music department will offer an unusually interesting array of presentations this fall, from performances and lectures by visiting internationally renowned performers and scholars to outstanding faculty and student ensemble concerts,” said Terry Rhodes, D.M.A. (doctor of musical arts), professor and chair of the music department in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Please join us for some marvelous music!”
Many of the events are free. For a complete schedule of events and ticket information, visit http://music.unc.edu or call (919) 962-1039. For a campus map searchable by building, visit http://www.unc.edu/maps/index.htm.
Some fall highlights:
- Sept. 9: “September Prelude,” part of the department’s William S. Newman Artists Series. The Harlem String Quartet, resident ensemble at the New England Conservatory of Music, will perform a blend of jazz-influenced and mainstream classical repertoire. 8 p.m., Memorial Hall. $15 general admission ($10 UNC students, faculty and staff). Information and tickets, (919) 843-3333.
- Sept. 22: Opening performance, Talking Music Series. The Pellegrini String Quartet of Germany performs works by Nono and Beethoven. 7:30 p.m., Person Recital Hall. Free.
- Sept. 23: Talking Music Series, a festival which brings eminent European artists to UNC to perform and to talk to the audience about their work. Pellegrini String Quartet performs works by Berg, Boulez, Feldman and Brahms, with European musician Ib Hausmann on clarinet and George Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Music Stefan Litwin on piano. 8 p.m., Person Recital Hall. Free.
- Sept. 24: Talking Music Series. “Life and Music,” with lecture-recital featuring speaker Nuria Schoenberg-Nono, daughter of composer Arnold Schoenberg and wife of the late Italian composer Luigi Nono, and Litwin on piano. 7:30 p.m., Person Recital Hall. Free.
- Sept. 25: Talking Music Series. Pellegrini String Quartet performs works by Haydn, Berg, Kurtag, Webern and UNC’s Litwin. With speaker Janice Misurell-Mitchell, a musician and faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Litwin on piano. 7:30 p.m., Person Recital Hall. Free.
- Sept. 29: Grammy Award-winning tenor and UNC professor of the practice Anthony Dean Griffey performing with UNC music faculty members. Part of Carolina Performing Arts’ 2011-2012 season. 7:30 p.m. Memorial Hall. Information and tickets, (919) 843-3333. For more on Griffey, visit http://www.anthonydeangriffey.com.
- Oct. 1: North Carolina debut recital by new UNC faculty member and pianist Clara Yang, D.M.A., part of the William S. Newman Artists Series, with music ranging from Handel to Tchaikovsky. 8 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. $15 general admission ($10 UNC students, faculty and staff). Information and tickets, (919) 962-1039.
- Oct. 11. Gala concert featuring the songs of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, who will be guest artists in residence in the music department from Oct. 10-12. The duo have been enriching the American songbook for more than five decades as lyricists for film, stage and television. They have won Emmys, Grammys and Oscars and been nominated for 16 Academy Awards. Faculty and students from the departments of music and dramatic arts will perform. 7:30 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. Free.
- Nov. 5: UNC Liszt Festival, part of the William S. Newman Artists Series. UNC faculty members will celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of the great composer and pianist Franz Liszt. Featuring Derison Duarte and Thomas Otten, D.M.A., piano; Timothy Sparks, tenor; Louise Toppin, D.M.A., soprano; and Clara Yang, piano. 8 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. $15 general admission ($10 UNC students, faculty and staff). Information and tickets, (919) 962-1039.
- Dec. 8: Carolina Choir and UNC Symphony Orchestra, part of the William S. Newman Artists Series. Featuring Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Dona Nobis Pacem” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. With UNC faculty conductors Susan Klebanow and Tonu Kalam; and Louise Toppin, soprano. 7:30 p.m. Memorial Hall. $15 general admission ($10 UNC students, faculty and staff). Information and tickets, (919) 843-3333.
