Only Two Concerts Left in 2013 KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival

Photo Submitted

The fifth annual KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival continues its season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13, with the fifth of six concerts. The performance, featuring music by Beethoven, Brahms and Musgrave, will be held in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, and a reception will follow.

Music professors Stephen Gates and Er-Gene Kahng have been organizing the festival in collaboration with KUAF and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences since 2009. Performances include a variety of chamber music from many musical eras, using diverse instrumental groups.

The fifth concert will feature faculty members Ronda Mains (flute) and Theresa Delaplain (oboe) playing Impromptu by Thea Musgrave (b. 1928). Trio Arkansas, comprised of Geoffrey Robson (violin), David Gerstein (cello) and Louis Menendez (piano) will follow with Trio no. 3 in c Minor, op. 101 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) and Trio in D Major, op.70, no. 1, Ghost by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).

"The program will open with a delightful Impromptu for flute and oboe by the Scottish composer Thea Musgrave and will continue with two piano trios, performed by Trio Arkansas," Gates said. "Trio Arkansas will play the dark and brooding third — and last — piano trio by Johannes Brahms, in c minor. After intermission, the concert will close with Beethoven's Ghost, a trio written at the height of Beethoven's powers, with a ghostly' slow movement in d minor."

Trio Arkansas, formed in 2010, is committed to performing great works of the piano trio repertoire across the state of Arkansas. Robson has been the Associate Conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra since 2008. Gerstein is the principle cellist of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and has performed all around the globe. Pianist Louis Menendez, a transplant from Manhattan, N.Y. to Hot Springs, Ark., has conducted and musically prepared more than 140 opera productions in the United States, Europe, Israel and Japan.

The six-week series will continue with concerts every Thursday at 7:30 p.m. until June 20. The remaining concerts will be in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall located in the Fine Arts Center.

Performances are free and open to the public thanks to support from the university, Fulbright College and private donors. Contributions for the KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival may be made online or by contacting the Fulbright College development office at 479-575-3712 or Fulbright@uark.edu.

Parking is available in the Stadium Drive Parking Facility, where parking is free after 5 p.m. Entrance to the parking facility is on Stadium Drive, and the facility's elevator will take patrons to street level directly across from the Fine Arts Center.

Musical previews and other details for each concert are available on the KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival website and seats for each performance may be reserved in advance through Fulbright College.