Two Concerts Left in 2014 KUAF/ Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The sixth annual KUAF/ Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival continues its season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29, with the third of four concerts. The performance will feature a duo for violin and cello, a sonata for violin and piano and a piano quintet. The performance will be held in the Fine Arts Building’s Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.

The third concert will feature faculty members Stephen Gates (cello), Er-Gene Kahng (violin), Tomoko Kashiwagi (piano) and guest artists David Gerstein (cello), Andrew Irvin (violin) and Molly Sharp (violin) playing Duo for violin and cello, no. 1, H. 157 by Bohuslav Martinu, Sonata for Violin and Piano by John Corigliano (1963) and Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, op. 44 by Robert Schumann.

Gerstein, a performer of chamber and contemporary music, has played concerts all over the world, from Carnegie Hall to the Great Wall of China. He is the principal cellist of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, of which he has been a member of since 2008. He also serves as cellist of the Quapaw String Quartet, which performs regularly at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, as well as in schools across Arkansas as part of the ASO’s Arts Partner program.

Irvin has a broad range of experience throughout North America and Europe. He has performed with the Ying Quartet, the Audubon Quartet and New York City premiere of composer Steve Mackey’s Troubadour Songs. He is the co-concertmaster of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and enjoys playing in recitals from coast to coast with organist David Christopher in the Irvin/Christopher duo.

Sharp is the principal violinist of the Richmond Symphony. She also teaches viola at Virginia Commonwealth University and is the violist in the Oberon String Quartet, which is in residence at St. Catherine’s and St. Christopher’s School. Sharp has been a member of the Nashville Symphony and the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra.

Music professors Gates and 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 using diverse instrumental groups from many musical eras.

The four-week concert series will continue until Friday, June 6, with a closing concert at Crystal Bridges Art Museum in Bentonville and reservations are required.

Performances are free and open to the public thanks to support from the University of Arkansas, 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. Musical previews and other details for each concert may be available on the KUAF/ Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival website.