Sonata in D Minor, K. 1 – Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Sonata in F major, K. 332 I. Allegro II. Adagio – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Waltz in A minor, Op. 34, No. 2 & Etude in F minor, Op. 10, No. 9 – Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Allegro Barbaro – Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Johnathan Lollar is a piano performance student under the instruction of Dr. Valentin Bogdan. Before he came to the W, he attended Bevill State Community College, where he studied music under Dr. John Stallsmith and piano under Becki Stallsmith. He would like to thank the faculty of the W music department for their guidance, the members and alumni of Beta Kappa Tau for their continued support in all of his endeavors, and his family and friends, who pushed him to begin this journey.
Date of Performance: March 26, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in Connie Sills Kossen Auditorium, Poindexter Hall.
Program
Biographies
Dr. Susan Hurley, soprano, has performed in Europe and the United States in repertoire that ranges from opera and musical theatre to concert and recital literature. A prizewinner at the 2002 Meistersinger competition in Graz, Austria, she has sung 25 principal operatic roles and soloed with orchestras in Germany and Austria as well as throughout the U.S.
She is the founding Artistic Director of Phoenix Arizona’s annual AIDS Quilt Songbook concert series. Later this month, she will present her ninth annual AIDS Quilt Songbook benefit concert in Phoenix. The concert launches a week of World AIDS Day events and raises funds for Arizona HIV/AIDS service organizations. Dr. Hurley has commissioned several new songs, with texts by long-term HIV survivors, which have premiered on the Phoenix concerts. She has presented lecture recitals, masterclasses, and talks on the literature comprising the AIDS Quilt Songbook for Southern Regional NATS, the Mississippi Music Teachers Association, at universities, and most recently, this past August at the tenth International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT)in Vienna, Austria.
She has given presentations on the theories of Alfred Tomatis, founder of audio-psycho-phonology, at ICVT Stockholm (2017), NATS, and the Mississippi Music Teachers Association. She authored the chapter on Tomatis listening in the book So You Want to Sing with Awareness, published in 2020 by Rowman and Littlefield.
Dr. Hurley is currently Associate Professor of Voice at Mississippi University for Women where she teaches Voice, Opera Workshop, Voice Pedagogy, and Music Literature. Several of her current and former voice students have won top prizes at state, regional, and national NATS competitions. She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University in 2012.
Dr. William Reber is Director of Choirs and Staff Pianist at MUW. Professor Emeritus of Opera and Music Theatre at Arizona State University where he was on the faculty for 24 years and served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Lyric Opera Theatre, he is former vocal coach, pianist and conductor for the Mittelsächsiches Theater in Germany, was head of the vocal coaching program for the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria (12 years) and was Music Director of the German Opera Experience in Freiberg, Germany (10 years). In summer 2019, he joined the faculty of Spotlight on Opera as conductor and collaborative pianist and was appointed music director in 2020.
Dr. Reber has been Music Director for more than 150 productions of operas and musicals and has been conductor of the Corpus Christi (TX) ballet since 1986. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed recitals with singers and instrumentalists in Germany, Austria, Macedonia and throughout the United States. He is the pianist and music director for the annual AIDS Quilt Songbook benefit performances in Phoenix. Dr. Reber earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Opera and Conducting at The University of Texas at Austin.
Date of Performance: February 27, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in Connie Sills Kossen Auditorium, Poindexter Hall.
Program
Odd Times – Valentin M. Bogdan (Mississippi University for Women)
Valentin Bogdan and Julia Mortyakova, piano
Midnight Glowing on Horseback – Alan Goldspiel (University of Montevallo)
Electronic Playback
Legacies – Hannah Adhikari (W Music Alumna)
Hannah Adhikari, piano
Life Sequences, Mvt. 1 & Mvt. III – Charles Weathersby (W Music Student composer)
Ginger Zingara, flute
“May I ask you to…?” – Ivan Elezovic (Jackson State University)
Electronic Playback
Impromptu No. 1 – Hannah Adhikari
Hannah Adhikari, piano
Etudes for Solo Piano – Valentin M. Bogdan
Introduction
Basso Ostinato
Sets
Aug
Program Notes
Odd Times is a work loosely based on the Sonata Allegro form. Composed during the challenging period of the pandemic lockdown, it serves as an allegorical representation of the uncertainty that characterized this unprecedented era.
Midnight Glowing on Horseback juxtaposes surrealist ideas and classical formal structures within its left to right time-based electronic playback. The audio events combine and mix samples of ordinary objects, instruments, synthesized sound, and Salvadore Dali discussing his moustache. The slightly bizarre mix of elements, rarely all that jarring, and maybe nonsensical, combine to conjure a mental image – midnight glowing on horseback? – or perhaps to merely create an awake dream.
Legacies – A piano solo for Grief. Whether it be family or friend, all loss is loss. May this melody bring out your memories together that still live on.
“May I ask you to…?” The main approach of the piece leaves the listener in an unexpected and confused state produced by interactions among the characters of the piece. The appearance of ignorance and sometimes irony causes communication to be very difficult, and in some instances impossible. The mixture of hesitated questions, observations, and attempts at clarification produces even further confusion with occasional comical events.
Life Sequences is a 3-movement piece composed for flute. Each movement begins with a sequence that is repeated and manipulated to develop the movement. This set of movements at the time of composition was an introspective reflection of a sequence of life events. However, each listener is free to interpret them in their own way.
Impromptu No. 1– A piano solo to remind us of our Childhood. We can find magic in life again when we see the world through a lense of love.
Etudes for Solo Piano This set of apply the meaning of the word etude, “study”, not only to the performer, but also to the audience and composer. Some of the writing is meant to challenge the pianist, similarly to the etudes of past major composers, while some of these etudes are the result of the composer challenging himself to make the most use of certain techniques. Finally, some of these works involve the listeners; they are asked to create their own understanding of what they hear, as part of an intellectual challenge.
