The Humanities Concert Series
Paul Orgel, Director

The Humanities Program Concert Series presents...

HUMANITIES PROGRAM CONCERT SERIES RETURNS TO SAINT MICHAEL’S

Tuesday, March 6, 7:30PM
McCarthy Arts Center

The Saint Michael’s College Humanities Program Concert Series presents a recital of music for violin and piano performed by Kevin Lawrence, violin, and Paul Orgel, piano. The program traces the development of the the sonata for violin and keyboard in three works by classical music’s greatest composers.

Program

J. S. Bach: Sonata in G, BWV 1019
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sonata in A, K 526
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 7 in C minor, opus 30, no. 2

Admission is free and open to the public. For information call 654-2563. 

Previous Programs

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 7:30PM
McCarthy Arts Center

Saint Michael’s’ Humanities Program presents another in a series of concerts of classical music. Series director and pianist Paul Orgel has put together a program of chamber music from the Romantic era featuring some of Vermont’s finest musicians in music by Schubert, Schumann, Chopin and Grieg.

The program pays belated tribute to the bicentenery of Chopin and Schumann’s birth (1810), features the little-known Grieg Violin Sonata No. 1 in F and the much loved Trio No. 1 in B-flat by Schubert.

Program

Robert Schumann: Three Romances, Op. 94
Frederic Chopin: Barcarolle, Op. 60
Edvard Grieg: Violin Sonata in F, Op. 18
Franz Schubert: Trio No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 99   

Performers

Laurel Ann Maurer, flute
Ira Morris, violin
John Dunlop, cello
Paul Orgel, pian

Admission is free and open to the public. For information call 654-2563.

AMERICAN SUITE
April 19, 2009

A PIANO RECITAL with spoken commentary by PAUL ORGEL

While visiting America in the 1890s, Antonin Dvorák advised composers to make use of the music of Native and African American music to create an American classical style.  One of the pieces that he composed in the U.S. (along with the New World Symphony, the Humoresque and the American String Quartet) is the less familiar American Suite for piano.

Dvorák’s advice, and his American Suite are the points of departure for a piano recital by Paul Orgel that features Native American influenced piano music: Lyrics of the Red Man by Harvey Worthington Loomis, a skillful American student of Dvorák’s, and Ferruccio Busoni’s  Red Indian Diary, a virtuosic treatment of a set of American Indian melodies. 

Also included are the Pawnee Preludes by contemporary composer, Curt Cacioppo whose music is informed by his profound study of Native American culture, and Variations on an American Folk Song by Allen Brings.

Composers Cacioppo and Brings will attend the concert and be available to meet with students.

Spring Semester Program
March 7, 2008

“Music from the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival” 

Program:
Schubert - Rondo brilliante in B Minor, D. 895 for Violin and Piano
Beethoven – Serenade in D for Flute, Violin, and Viola, Opus 25
Dvorak – Piano Quartet in E-flat, Opus 87

Performers:
Kevin Lawrence, violin, Susan Dubois, viola, Brooks Whitehouse, cello, Karen Kevra, flute, Paul Orgel, piano

Fall Semester Program
November 4, 2007

“In Honor of György Ligeti, Students, and the 20th Century”

When the Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006) died last year, many called him the last great composer of the 20th century. This concert celebrates Ligeti’s piano music, and also features music by some of the outstanding composers of  20th century, Hindemith, Stravinsky, and Bartok, in performances by both professional and student musicians.

The Program and the Performers

Musica Ricercata is a dynamic 1953 piano work by Ligeti consisting of 11 short pieces. The first uses only two tones, the second: three, and so on up to the final piece, a fugue that uses all twelve tones of the octave. Musica Ricercata will be performed by a group of young pianists, students of Paul Orgel.    

Ligeti’s Études may be the most exciting classical piano music composed in the last few decades, expanding the possibilities of what is possible on the instrument. Vermont’s virtuoso pianist, Michael Arnowitt specializes in playing Ligeti’s etudes and will perform five of them (by memory!). 

Also featured will be Bartok’s Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm (Paul Orgel, piano) Hindemith’s Sonata for Bassoon and Piano (Rachael Elliot, bassoon, with Paul Orgel) Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata (Xiudan Lin, piano) and Three Pieces for Clarinet (Wesley Christensen, clarinet)