The Jacobs School of Music will honor professors Rostislav and Luba Edlina-Dubinsky at a concert at 7 p.m. March 6 in Auer Hall. Rostislav and Luba were both professors of music at IU.
This will be the first concert honoring both Rostislav and Luba. Rostislav died in 1997 and Luba died in October. The couple met in Moscow, where they lived for years under the regime of Joseph Stalin. Professor of music James Campbell said the Dubinskys brought a great deal of culture and new perspectives to the music school after their 1981 arrival.
“What they brought was a kind of style of music making that really goes back in history,” Campbell said. “It enriched the music side of things, but also their personalities and their own life experiences enriched the lives of many students.”
Three of those students were Sharon Stanis, Joanna Hood and Pamela Highbaugh Aloni, who met when they were graduate students at the music school. They later formed the Lafayette String Quartet after meeting fourth member Ann Elliott-Goldschmid. The quartet will be performing a quintet by Johannes Brahms with Campbell at the concert.
Stanis, Hood and Highbaugh Aloni said Rostislav helped form their quartet more than 30 years ago. Now, the quartet has performed across Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe.
“He always gave you the feeling that everything was possible, you could do anything,” Highbaugh Aloni said. “Anything you were thinking of trying to do, you could do.”
The three said Luba also had a large impact on forming their quartet through her support. Even after Rostislav’s death, Stanis said they continued playing with Luba and the group stayed in touch about music and family life.
“She had such a unique way of playing as well, she studied with some of the greatest Russian pianists,” Hood said. “We learned so much from playing with her and enjoyed it so much that we wanted to continue doing that.”
The concert will feature two pieces, “Songs without Words,” a piano solo by Felix Mendelssohn, and “Quintet in B Minor,” a clarinet and strings piece by Johannes Brahms. One of Luba’s former students Cory Smythe will also be performing. Campbell said the repertoire is all music Rostislav and Luba would have enjoyed.
“When you play music that they love so much, you can’t help but think about them and all the friendship and good times we had,” Campbell said, “and hoping that the music that we play is helping the audience — most of the audience coming would have known them — help them to remember all the great things about them as well.”
The concert is free to attend, and will also be broadcast online for those unable to go.
