The Music Department at Mary Baldwin University is pleased to announce the first Sunday Recital of 2026, featuring Amadi Azikiwe, violin and viola, and Lise Keiter, piano. The recital is Sunday, February 1 at 3 pm in Francis Auditorium on the Mary Baldwin campus.
The Music Department at Mary Baldwin University is pleased to announce the first Sunday Recital of 2026, featuring Amadi Azikiwe, violin and viola, and Lise Keiter, piano. The recital is Sunday, February 1 at 3 pm in Francis Auditorium on the Mary Baldwin campus.
The program celebrates Black History Month, featuring African American composers Florence Price, Nkeiru Okoye, and David Baker. The duo will open the concert with Florence Price’s delightful Seven Descriptive Pieces. Originally written for solo piano, these charming pieces were recently arranged for viola and piano by Molly Wise. Also on the program is Nkeiru Okoye’s Breaking Bread, a moving work for solo viola that Azikiwe premiered in 2022. Guggenheim fellow Nkeiru Okoye is considered one of today’s most exciting composers; her music has been commissioned and performed by the BBC, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Juilliard, Houston Grand Opera, and Opera North UK. Azikiwe and Keiter will also perform Blues: Deliver My Soul, a gospel-inspired work composed by award-winning jazz composer David Baker, as well as the beautiful Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano by Johannes Brahms.
Violist and Violinist Amadi Azikiwe has appeared in recital in major cities throughout the United States and around the world; he has performed in South America, Central America, India, Switzerland, Nigeria, Japan, Hong Kong, and throughout the Caribbean. As a chamber musician, he has performed with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Chester, Miro, St. Lawrence, Anderson, Arianna, Lydian, Harrington and Corigliano string quartets, as well as the Felici Piano Trio and Kandinsky Piano Trio. He has taught at Indiana University and James Madison University, and he is currently Music Director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Harlem Chamber Players. He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Indiana University.
Pianist Lise Keiter has performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe, and she is active as a solo recitalist, collaborative artist, and soloist with orchestra. Her recent performance engagements have taken her to New York City, North Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin, Idaho, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia, South Carolina, and throughout Virginia, including recent performances with the Waynesboro Symphony, the Heifetz Institute, and the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. She is Professor of Music at Mary Baldwin University and holds degrees from Indiana University and the Oberlin Conservatory.
This event is FREE and open to the public. No tickets are required. For more information about concerts at MBU, please click here. Questions may be emailed to Music@marybaldwin.edu.