By Linda East Brady

The Bonneville Chamber Music Festival, a homegrown Weber State University festival celebrating all facets of the more intimate side of classical music, will ring in its sixth year with an exclusive concert recording and two new venues.

The multiple-day festival, which starts Wednesday, March 21, includes student and faculty performers from Weber State University and other Utah universities, as well as guests from Arizona, New Mexico, Brazil and France.

"This is the first time we've done five concerts, and the first time we've gone off campus," said Viktor Uzur, founder of the festival and associate professor of cello at WSU.

The recorded performance will be of the debut performance, featuring French composers and guest pianist Guigla Katsarava, a professor at France's Ecole Normale Supierieure de Paris.

The concert will be captured for posterity with Ray Kimber's experimental, super-high-fidelity ISOMIKE system based in the Austad Auditorium.

"Actually, this is the first time we used Austad, instead of (the smaller) Allred Theater," said Uzur. "It is a little big for chamber music, but we can use panels to literally simulate the sound bouncing off an audience's foreheads -- that is how high-tech it is. I think it will sound amazing."

Requiem at church

Also unique to this year's BCMF is the final performance, at Ogden's Holy Family Catholic Church.

The church was designed in part to feature marvelous acoustics. The concert is a celebration of the memory of Daniele Doctorow, a New York cellist and patron of the arts who passed away at her sister's Salt Lake City home in 2010. Doctorow managed the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation, which benefited both mental health and performing arts studies.

This concert will feature conductor Manfredo Schmiedt, of the Brazilian Orchestra Symphonica de Porto Alegre.

"We will have the orchestra, the choir and the organ, performed by Brett Patterson, the organist for the church," said Uzur. "It will be a celebration of her (Doctorow's) life. We will have her portrait there and celebrate her memory."

A modern touch

Also featured at the festival is a night of modern music on March 23, chamber music classics on March 24, and a free concert featuring University of Arizona faculty guitarist Brad Richter partnering with Viktor Uzur, on March 26.

Said Uzur: "The concert on the 23rd will feature Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke. I had the pleasure of once shaking his hand. He was an amazing composer from the generation that witnessed Perestroika -- but he was also influenced by Shostakovich and the earlier ones. You can see that double line of classical or neo-classical, and really modern music, in his work. So you hear some of the atonal stuff, but also very tonal stuff -- he was so masterful mixing even Baroque with super-modern music styles."

The concert on the 24th will feature Beethoven and Brahms sonatas, with Katsarava and Uzur joining forces.

For the free evening on the 26th, Uzur joins forces with his frequent musical partner Richter, whom he has recorded and performed with for a number of years, including frequent appearances on NPR's "Performance Today." They have also appeared on PBS' "Woodsongs."

The show, titled "From Albeniz to Zeppelin," will feature, as Uzur said, "our mash-ups of (Led) Zeppelin and classical and original works."

On top of his professorial and performance duties, Uzur said, the festival is a lot of work each year, but he enjoys it as long as he sees the community has the interest in continuing it.

"I think people here are getting more interested in this genre," he said, "Now we are looking to make the next step. If the future goes right, in a few years we might see Yo-Yo Ma here. It is very possible."

PREVIEW

• WHAT: Bonneville Chamber Music Festival
• WHEN AND WHERE: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, Browning Center’s Austad Auditorium, Weber State University, 3848 Harrison Blvd., Ogden; 7:30 p.m. March 23-24, 26, Browning Center’s Allred Theater, Weber State University; 7:30 p.m. March 30, Holy Family Catholic Church, 1100 E. 5550 South, South Ogden
• TICKETS: March 21, 23, 24 and 30 concerts are $12; $9/students, seniors and those with military ID; 25 percent discount for two or more; tickets available from the WSU box office, 800-WSU-TIKS. March 26 is a first-come, first-served free concert.

The original story can be found here.

OGDEN, Utah – Weber State University music professor Yu-Jane Yang has been named the 2012 John S. Hinckley Fellow, while WSU’s International Economics program is the 2012 Exemplary Collaboration Award winner.

Yang, an accomplished pianist who has performed in concert on three continents, joined the WSU music faculty in 1992. Known for her ability to train award-winning performers, she not only has grown WSU’s Piano Program, she has elevated its renown on the national and international stage.

That heightened awareness has helped Yang successfully recruit piano students from around the world to Weber State, in some cases eschewing famed conservatories like Julliard and Oberlin in favor of WSU. Under her tutelage, these young pianists have gone on to win prestigious competitions at the national and international level.

Yang is the author of numerous articles on piano teaching published in leading piano pedagogy journals. She is a sought-after teacher of both piano workshops and master classes as well as a judge of national and international piano competitions.

Yang was one of three national winners of the 1991 distinguished D.H. Baldwin Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in Piano. She received WSU’s Lowe Innovative Teaching Award in 2000 and was honored by the Utah Symphony Ballet Association with the Women in the Arts Award in 2008.

In addition, Yang was chosen to receive the Utah Music Teachers Association’s highest honor in 2010, the UMTA Legacy Award, and in 2011, the Music Teachers National Association named her a Foundation Fellow.

Yang, who is the 2010-12 Endowed Scholar/Artist in the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities, spearheaded the Steinway Project at WSU. She worked to attain the prestigious “Steinway School” designation, which the university received in 2011. She was also named a WSU Presidential Distinguished Professor in 2011.

“Professor Yang’s superior teaching skills have been acknowledged through a stellar record of student evaluations, and her reputation as a teacher able to combine high – indeed, world class – expectations with a comfortable yet rigorous classroom atmosphere,” wrote a colleague in nominating her for the Hinckley Award. “Her achievements have gained WSU a truly international reputation and made her a tireless advocate for our institution.”

Since 1991, the Hinckley Award has been bestowed upon a member of the WSU faculty who has excelled in teaching, scholarship and service. The award is named in honor of Ogden businessman and WSU supporter John S. Hinckley, who died in 1990.

The university’s International Economics (IE) program received the 2012 Exemplary Collaboration Award, in recognition of the teamwork demonstrated during the implementation and later expansion of the program.

Building on an existing international faculty exchange program, the John B. Goddard School of Business & Economics organized a partnership with Shanghai Normal University (SNU) in 2008, making it easier for Chinese students to travel to Ogden and earn a bachelor's degree in international economics.

WSU’s Department of Economics worked with SNU to develop a “two plus two curriculum,” where students take courses in Shanghai during their freshman and sophomore years and in Ogden during their junior and senior years. They complete the same courses at WSU required of any other international economics major. The program recently expanded to include students from Korea’s Woongji Accounting and Tax College.

As of fall 2011, 83 Chinese and Korean students were taking classes through the International Economics program at WSU. Twenty-one students from SNU have graduated from the program, and the first student from Woongji will graduate this spring.

 “Creating this program would have been impossible without the support and dedication of a wide variety of WSU personnel,” said Jeff Steagall, dean of the Goddard School.

Those involved in the program include the faculty and staff of the Goddard School, especially economics professor and associate dean Cliff Nowell, economics chair Doris Geide-Stevenson, and the economics department. Also taking part were professors from the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities, the College of Applied Science & Technology, and the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, as well as staff from Continuing Education, the International Student Center, and the Admissions Office.

The university will formerly recognize the recipients of both awards at a luncheon on March 20.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.

By David Burger

Utah Public Radio’s newest program will be taped in front of a live audience in Utah on March 8.

In January UPR began airing the classical music program, "From the Top," twice a week. The show is a NPR-produced radio program.

Weber State University in Ogden is hosting a taping of the show on March 8, to be broadcast nationally in April 2012.

Host Christopher O’Riley will present performances by talented young musicians on the stage at Weber State University’s Browning Center for the Performing Arts.

"From the Top" is an hour-long program showcasing five high-caliber performances along with interviews, sketches and games. Taped before live audiences in concert halls from Boston to Honolulu, the show is now in its 12th broadcast year.

Utah Public Radio recently added "From the Top" to its list of classical music offerings, airing the program Friday afternoons at 2 p.m. with a repeat Sundays at 9 p.m.

A complete list of programs and station frequencies is posted online at www.upr.org, where visitors can also listen to a live stream of "From the Top" and other NPR programs.

In Ogden, listeners can hear UPR on 89.5 FM.

The event is open to the public and tickets are available at www.weberstatetickets.com or by calling 801-626-8500.

Utah Public Radio, a service of Utah State University, is Utah’s oldest public radio service and a member station of National Public Radio.

The original story can be found here.

Sixth Annual Bonneville Chamber Music Festival
http://www.weber.edu/bcmf
March 21 – 30, 2012

Guest Artists:
Bojan Martinovic, piano, Montenegro (professor, Montenegro Academy of Music)
Brad Richter, guitar, USA (guitarist, composer, residency artist)
Brett Patterson, organist, USA (music director, Holy Family Church, Ogden)
Carmelo de Los Santos, violin, Brazil (professor, University of New Mexico)
Guigla Katsarava, piano, France (professor, Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris)
Manfredo Schmeidt, conductor, Brazil, (Orchestra Symphonica de Porto Alegre)
Miran Begic, violin, Montenegro (dean/professor, Montenegro Academy of Music)
Monte Belknap, violin, USA (professor, Brigham Young University)
Spencer Martin, viola, USA (professor, Luther College)

Weber State University faculty and students:
Mark Henderson, director, WSU Chamber Choir
Michael Palumbo, director, WSU Symphony Orchestra
Moriah Wilhelm, violin
Viktor Uzur, cello
WSU Chamber Orchestra
WSU Chamber Choir

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 March 21, 7:30 p.m.  Austad Auditorium, Browning Center for the Performing Arts

Recording Live! "French Composers” ($12/9)

The concert will be recorded live by the ISOMIKE ™ at the large Austad Auditorium, Val. A.  Browning Center for the Performing Arts. The IsoMike is an experimental recording apparatus and method being used to recreate the original performance in DSD high definition audio (SACD).

This first-ever CD release for BCMF will capture the energy and spirit of the live performance.

Program:

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
Violin Sonata in G minor, L 140, for violin and piano (1917)
I. Allegro vivo
II. Intermède: Fantasque et léger
III. Finale: Très animé
Amédée-Ernest Chausson (1855 – 1899)
Concerto in D, Op. 21, for piano, violin, and string quartet (1889–91)
I. Décidé  
II. Sicilienne  
III. Grave  
III. Très animé
Carmelo de Los Santos, violin, Guigla Katsarava, piano, Monte Belknap, violin, Moriah Wilhelm, violin, Spencer Martin, viola, Viktor Uzur, cello

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

March 23, 7:30 p.m. Allred Theater, Browning Center for the Performing Arts

Modern Chamber Music ($12/9)

For the first time BCMF will present chamber music by the acclaimed Russian/Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke: Quintet for piano and strings (1972-76). Even though it reflects polystylistic traits of Schnittke’s composing, this piece was influenced by the Russian spirit of the Piano Quintet by Dmitry Shostakovich.

The program will include:

Alfred Schnittke (1934 –1998)
Quintet for piano and strings (1972–76)

   1. Moderato

   2. Tempo di Valse

   3. Andante

   4. Lento

   5. Moderato pastorale

Bojan Martinovic, piano, Carmelo de Los Santos, violin, Guigla Katsarava, piano, Miran Begic, violin, Spencer Martin, viola, Viktor Uzur, cello

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

March 24, 7:30 p.m. Allred Theater, Browning Center for the Performing Arts

Chamber Music Classics ($12/9)

Audiences  favorite,  Felix Mendelsohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in in D minor will be performed by guest artists form from Montenegro, violinist Moran Begic and pianist Bojan Martinovic. This concert will for the first time feature chamber music for two pianos as European pianists, Guigla Katsarava and Bojan Martinovic perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 2 for two pianos on our brand new Steinways!

Program:
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847)
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
I. Molto allegro ed agitato
II. Andante con moto tranquillo
III. Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace
IV. Finale: Allegro assai appassionato
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943)
Suite No. 2, Op. 17 for two pianos, four hands
I. Introduction: Alla marcia
II. Valse: Presto
III. Romance: Andantino
IV. Tarantelle: Presto
Bojan Martinovic, piano, Guigla Katsarava, piano, Miran Begic, violin, Viktor Uzur, cello

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

March 26, 7:30 p.m. Allred Theater, Browning Center,

“From Albeniz to Zeppelin,” Richter Uzur Duo

Brad Richter, guitar and Viktor Uzur, cello

FREE CONCERT sponsored by Weber County RAMP

“The Richter Uzur Duo is doing some amazing stuff. Wait until you hear…. This is going to be very special.”
Michael Johnathan. Host of PBS's WoodSongs

Since October of 2008 The Richter Uzur Duo has appeared regularly on NPR broadcasts of American Public Media’s Performance Today. The Richter Uzur Duo may be unique in the way they combine classical, rock and folk music and themes into truly original new compositions as well as in the way they collaborate. Because they live almost 1,000 miles apart, they do a great deal of composing over the phone and Internet, writing parts separately, combining and re-developing them while on concert tours together.  It is rare that two successful classical composers come together to co-write music of such distinction. The fun and friendship Viktor and Brad share in this partnership are obvious on stage and in their music.

http://www.ruduo.org

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

March 30, 7:30 p.m. Holy Family Church, Ogden

Faure Requiem, ($12/9)

(This concert dedicated to Danièle Doctorow)

This final concert is dedicated to a celebration of the life of Danièle Doctorow (1952 to 2010), friend, musician, business woman, and the first Executive Director of the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation. The Brazilian conductor Manfredo Schmeidt will lead WSU Chamber Choir and Orchestra in this magnificent festival finale. A week prior to the performance, Mr. Schmeidt will be in residence at WSU, preparing the Faure Requiem with WSU students. Concert will also feature Michael Palumbo, WSU Orchestra Director and Mark Henderson, WSU Choir Director.

Program will include:
Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924)
Requiem in D minor, Op. 48
I. Introït et Kyrie
II. Offertoire
III. Sanctus
IV. Pie Jesu
V. Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna
VI. Libera me
VII. In Paradisum
Manfredo Schmeidt, conductor (Orchestra Symphonica de Porto Alegre)
Brett Patterson, organist (music director, Holy Family Church, Ogden)
Mark Henderson, director, WSU Chamber Choir
Michael Palumbo, director, WSU Symphony Orchestra
WSU Chamber Orchestra
WSU Chamber Choir

­­­­­­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Tickets: $12 adults/$9 Senior Citizens/Free for students

25% off purchase of two or more concerts
http://www.weberstatetickets.com
1-800 WSU-TIKS
Festival website: http://www.weber.edu/bcmf

The Bonneville Chamber Music Festival is made possible through the generous support of:

Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation
RAMP
Harris Family Foundation
Mel and Sandy Sowerby

OGDEN -- The Weber State University String Project is an after-school orchestra program at WSU's Ogden Campus that will start classes Monday.

Classes, for beginning to advanced students in violin, viola, cello or string bass, run Mondays and Wednesdays. The age for beginning students is third through sixth grades.

Registration is 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday at the Val A. Browning Center, second-floor lobby, at WSU. Students will be able to rent instruments/purchase books on the spot.

Cost for the program is $60 per semester. For information, see the website at programs.weber.edu/wsustringproject or call Elissa at 801-644-9871.

WSU Chamber Orchestra off to China

Nancy Van Valkenburg

OGDEN -- Amy Elmer isn't too worried about the first airplane flight of her life, even though it will last a whopping 15 hours.

The Weber State University music education student, whose previous longest trip was to Washington state, isn't concerned about the food she will eat in China. She likes sushi, and she's moderately skilled with chopsticks.

And Elmer won't get lonely, traveling with three dozen or so fellow musicians in the WSU Chamber Orchestra, which leaves for Beijing at 6 a.m. Sunday but, due to time-zone differences, arrives Monday afternoon.

No, what worries Elmer is the well-being of her cello, which will make the 6,000-mile trip in the plane's belly with other baggage and cargo.

"I'm worried about my cello getting lost or bumped or broken or too cold," said Elmer, 21 of Pleasant View. "It should be OK in the new case Dr. Palumbo bought. But that's what worries me."

Michael Palumbo, WSU department chair and professor of music, is taking a student musical group to China for the third time since 1999, when he was first invited by the visiting president of Shanghai Normal University, Yang Deguang.

"They brought him on a campus tour, and they brought him to our building," Palumbo recalled. "He stuck his head into an orchestra rehearsal and a few months later I got an invitation to do a concert at Shanghai Normal University."

The travel group will consist of 37 faculty members, student musicians and spouses. Faculty soloists will include Yu-Jane Yang, piano; Shi-Hwa Wang, violin; and Viktor Uzur, cello.

For the flights, most musicians put their instruments in overhead compartments, but a few larger instruments will travel as baggage and a few really big instruments will be borrowed in China.

Weber State musicians will perform concerts at Beijing Contemporary Music Academy, Tianjin University of Sport, and Shanghai Ocean University. Much of the musicians' nine-day trip will be spent as tourists, being shown the sites by university hosts.

Elmer can't wait.

"I'm excited to see all the big tourist attractions," she said. "I'm also excited to just see a big city and how it functions. And I'm excited about shopping in Shanghai, where I am told I can buy anything I want -- like clothes, silk and pearls -- cheaper."

Those going had a year to plan and save, Palumbo said. The cost of the trip is $2,015 per person, which goes for flights, transportation in China, hotels, meals and sight-seeing. After monetary donations by the university, those going will pay $1,265 each. But that's still a chunk of change for the average student.

"I've been aware of needing to pay for it, and have been more careful than normal with my money," Elmer said. "I already have a couple of jobs, so I was more careful with what I earned."

Palumbo said music students at Chinese universities he has visited are different from orchestra musicians at Weber State.

"The schools in China cater only to those students who have a very high ability as musicians," he said. "It's not the case that anyone who wants to can get involved and perform. They weed out students to get only the best performers.

"A lot of the performers in my orchestra are not music majors or minors. They just like to play. It's a different musical culture for our students to see, and the Chinese students get to see our students, who are regular college students who just love music and want to enjoy themselves. It's a good learning experience for both sides. And I have to say, my orchestra is pretty good. It holds its own quite well against the Chinese students."

For students like Elmer, hoping to teach music in the United States, and for other orchestra students who plan to follow other career paths, the trip to China is a rare opportunity, Palumbo said.

Elmer agreed.

"It's the chance of a lifetime to go with so many of my friends," she said. "I've been with the orchestra four years, so I'm going to China with a big group of good friends."

Elmer said she plans to stay with her group, "so I don't get lost." She bought a water bottle with a filter, "so I don't get sick."

Her only other worry?

"I'm pretty good with chopsticks, but I may have to hide a fork in my purse."

 Story found here 

Crescendos in China

WSU’s department of performing arts to tour the land of a billion people

Thirty-seven student orchestra players will have the musical opportunity of a lifetime to play on the other side of the globe, and some veteran professors will return to visit old friends and colleagues when the Weber State University Chamber Orchestra performs a musical tour in China from May 15-23. The players, as well as several spouses and music department faculty, are preparing to visit Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai during the nine-day tour.

This is the third tour the orchestra has made to China since the WSU orchestra program began associating with Chinese schools in 1999. That year, president Yang of Shanghai Normal University, visited the WSU campus as part of an exchange development trip, and attended a rehearsal of the Weber State Symphony Orchestra. That led to an invitation for the orchestra to perform a series of concerts at SNU and other venues in Shanghai in 2000.

Michael Palumbo, the Director of Orchestral Studies and professor of Viola at the WSU Department of Performing Arts, organized the trip and will conduct the orchestra.

"It is a once in a lifetime cultural musical opportunity that's hard to get," Palumbo said. "China is such a completely different culture for us that it's something the students will probably not have the a chance to do again, especially as a musical experience."

Palumbo has been teaching at WSU for 29 years and has conducted the orchestra on each of the three previous trips. He also took a sabbatical in the spring of 2008 to teach at the Shanghai Medical College for four months, and has enjoyed his experiences visiting several countries in the East, including Singapore and Taiwan.

"I like everything about it," Palumbo said about China. "The country and the people — it's just a very enjoyable experience."

In 2005, the orchestra was invited to perform concerts in Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai. At that time, they were offered a rare opportunity to view and actually walk down among the thousands of excavated terra cotta warriors on site in Xi'an. It was an experience not often offered to guests.

In May, the chamber orchestra will perform at the Tianjin Music Conservatory, Tianjin Normal University and Shanghai Ocean University. They will tour the Forbidden City in Beijing, Tiananmen Square and make a special trip the climb the Great Wall.

Other faculty from the Department of Performing Arts will be featured as guest artists during the tour. Shi-Hwa Wang, professor of Violin;  Yu-Jane Yang, professor of Piano/Piano Pedagogy; and Viktor Uzur, professor of Cello, will perform the Beethoven Concerto in C for Piano, Violin and Cello with the orchestra.

The students will pay a large portion of the trip's expense themselves, but it was also funded by a generous donation from the College of Arts and Humanities and WSU's Student Fee Committee.

For more information about the upcoming trip or the Department of Performing Arts, contact Michael Palumbo at (801) 626-6991, or email mpalumbo@weber.edu.

Article found here: http://www.wsusignpost.com/a-e/crescendos-in-china-1.2124097

From the Signpost
By: Jessica Wilke

Thirty-seven student orchestra players will have the musical opportunity of a lifetime to play on the other side of the globe, and some veteran professors will return to visit old friends and colleagues when the Weber State University Chamber Orchestra performs a musical tour in China from May 15-23. The players, as well as several spouses and music department faculty, are preparing to visit Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai during the nine-day tour.

This is the third tour the orchestra has made to China since the WSU orchestra program began associating with Chinese schools in 1999. That year, president Yang of Shanghai Normal University, visited the WSU campus as part of an exchange development trip, and attended a rehearsal of the Weber State Symphony Orchestra. That led to an invitation for the orchestra to perform a series of concerts at SNU and other venues in Shanghai in 2000.

Michael Palumbo, the Director of Orchestral Studies and professor of Viola at the WSU Department of Performing Arts, organized the trip and will conduct the orchestra.

"It is a once in a lifetime cultural musical opportunity that's hard to get," Palumbo said. "China is such a completely different culture for us that it's something the students will probably not have the a chance to do again, especially as a musical experience."

Palumbo has been teaching at WSU for 29 years and has conducted the orchestra on each of the three previous trips. He also took a sabbatical in the spring of 2008 to teach at the Shanghai Medical College for four months, and has enjoyed his experiences visiting several countries in the East, including Singapore and Taiwan.

"I like everything about it," Palumbo said about China. "The country and the people — it's just a very enjoyable experience."

In 2005, the orchestra was invited to perform concerts in Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai. At that time, they were offered a rare opportunity to view and actually walk down among the thousands of excavated terra cotta warriors on site in Xi'an. It was an experience not often offered to guests.

In May, the chamber orchestra will perform at the Tianjin Music Conservatory, Tianjin Normal University and Shanghai Ocean University. They will tour the Forbidden City in Beijing, Tiananmen Square and make a special trip the climb the Great Wall.

Other faculty from the Department of Performing Arts will be featured as guest artists during the tour. Shi-Hwa Wang, professor of Violin;  Yu-Jane Yang, professor of Piano/Piano Pedagogy; and Viktor Uzur, professor of Cello, will perform the Beethoven Concerto in C for Piano, Violin and Cello with the orchestra.

The students will pay a large portion of the trip's expense themselves, but it was also funded by a generous donation from the College of Arts and Humanities and WSU's Student Fee Committee.

For more information about the upcoming trip or the Department of Performing Arts, contact Michael Palumbo at

(801) 626-6991, or email mpalumbo@weber.edu.