Faculty to present new works, Mozart

This weekend, the Jacobs School of Music Faculty Recital will feature the avant-premiere of “Listen,” a new work in three movements by professor of viola Atar Arad, as well as two classical Mozart pieces.

The recital will begin at 4 p.m. Sunday in Auer Hall.

Arad said an avant-premiere is like a preview or screening of the music, and the real premiere will take place in September in England for the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove. The program, which gives 16 public concerts a year, commissioned Arad to create the piece for its annual tour.

“I can’t wait to hear it and, who knows, maybe make some changes if necessary,” he said. “The piece is music for three poems by W.S. Merwin, a great American poet. I chose three poems of his, and I put them to music for tenor, clarinet, viola, cello and double bass.”

“Listen” includes a large role for the double bass, which is not commonly used in chamber music. Bruce Bransby, professor of double bass, will be featured in Sunday’s performance.

“It’s really nice that we can include him because he’s a great player,” Arad said.
The pieces by Mozart are two of his greatest arrangements for strings, said Mark Kaplan, professor of violin, who will also be performing on Sunday.

“‘Divertimento in E flat major’ is a very big piece,” he said. “It’s very light but very profound, as well as being a lot of fun.”

The recital will also feature graduate student and tenor Chris Lysack, who began, Arad said, as a talented and successful pianist and French major.

Since auditioning for an IU opera and landing an important role, Arad said, Lysack has moved to New York City to live and work and will soon be moving to Hamburg, Germany to pursue opera abroad for two years.

Cellist Yotam Baruch and violist Leah Kovac, both graduate students, will also perform.

“The string quintet has three faculty members but also two of our students,” Arad said. “It is important that we mix talented students in with what we are doing.”

Arad has been Baruch’s chamber music coach over the last three years and asked him to perform in Sunday’s recital.

“This is the second time I will play in a faculty recital,” Baruch said. “‘Listen’ is an exciting, moving and entertaining piece which will surely be a thrill to the audience.”