The Music Department at Mary Baldwin University is pleased to announce the next recital on the Sunday Recital Series. At 3 p.m. on February 28, violist Johanna Beaver will be joined by percussionist I-Jen Fang and pianist Shelby Sender in Mary Baldwin’s Francis Auditorium. The program contains only four works, but each is dramatically different stylistically.
“I thought it would be interesting to program pieces that cover very different genres and allow for great variety in the recital,” Beaver said. “It is a fun challenge for the performers to shift so dramatically from one musical period such as the Baroque all the way to a piece that was just composed this fall.”
Beaver and Sender will begin the program with a sonata by J. S. Bach, originally intended for viola da gamba and keyboard. The next two works, Start Dancing and Be Still, My Soul, both feature viola and percussion and both were composed by modern composers.
“Be Still, My Soul was written by a dear friend of mine, originally for solo percussion, just after the attacks on the World Trade Center,” Beaver said. “Recently, Ellen Lindquist created a viola part and integrated it into the fabric of the piece she had written 15 years ago.” This work is in memoriam to the individuals who suffered then and who continue to suffer from the attacks of September 11, 2001.
To conclude the recital, Beaver and Fang will perform Robert Schumman’s Marchenbilder, a set of four “Fairytale Pictures” for viola and piano. This work, essentially a suite of romantic character pieces, depicts scenes from Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Sleeping Beauty.
Beaver enjoys a diverse musical career as a chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher. She is on the faculty at Mary Baldwin University where she teaches violin and viola. She is a founding member of the Afton String Quartet and performs regularly in the Richmond and Roanoke Symphonies, Virginia Opera, and at the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival.
Fang is a faculty member at the University of Virginia where she is also the Principal Timpanist and Percussionist of the Charlottesville Symphony. She has performed as a marimba soloist around the world and has been a featured soloist with the Charlottesville Symphony numerous times. An advocate for new music, Fang is also the director of the UVA New Music Ensemble.
Sender is an active solo and collaborative pianist. Most recently, she has performed at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington DC and at the Hungarian Ambassador’s Residence. A faculty member of Crescendo, a summer music festival in Hungary, she also maintains a private studio and performs with various organizations in Central Virginia.
Tickets for February 28 may be purchased at the door and are $5 for the general public and $4 for seniors and non-Mary Baldwin students. For more information call 540-887-7294 or visit Music at Mary Baldwin.