Department of Music

The McIntire Department of Music is pleased to present the 2018-2019 University of Virginia Chamber Music Series. This annual series, which presents innovative performances by the University of Virginia's world-class performance faculty and celebrated guest artists, is comprised of six professional performances for the University and the central Virginia community. These intimate concerts are programmed to offer both new and traditional works that will delight audiences of all musical tastes.

On Sunday, November 11 at 3:30 pm, the series continues with Kelly Peral, oboe. With pianist John Mayhood, Peral will present Giovanni Boni’s Sonata in G alongside Charles Colin’s Seventh Solo de Concours. The duo will be joined by UVA faculty member Ayn Balija, viola, for Charles Martin Loeffler’s enchanting Deux Rhapsodies for oboe, viola, and piano. Peral and Mayhood conclude their program with Alyssa Morris’s Four Personalities, a work for oboe and piano in four movements—Yellow, White, Blue, and Red—each based on the Hartman Personality Test.

Tickets for all concerts are $15 general admission, $8 for students, and are free for UVA students who reserve in advance and for those under 18. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Arts Box Office at 434.924.3376, or by visiting artsboxoffice.virginia.edu. For additional information, please visit http://music.virginia.edu/uvacms.

Biographies

Kelly Peral
Kelly Peterson Peral is University of Virginia’s Lecturer in Oboe and Principal Oboe with the Charlottesville Symphony. Peral’s performance background includes extensive engagements with New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York City Ballet, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, numerous Broadway shows, Palm Beach Opera, Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, The Florida Orchestra, New World Symphony, and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, among others. Most recently she has enjoyed engagements with Roanoke Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Williamsburg Symphony, and Norfolk’s Virginia Symphony.
An enthusiastic educator, Ms. Peral has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, Miami’s New World School of the Arts and Florida International University, as well as the Cleveland Music School Settlement. She had the honor of teaching at the 2016 John Mack Oboe Camp in Little Switzerland, NC, a tremendous opportunity to continue sharing John Mack’s legacy with more than fifty oboists from throughout the United States and Canada. 
Having grown up in Central Virginia, Ms. Peral is grateful for her early musical training in Charlottesville with Yvaine Duisit (piano) and David Goza (oboe). Her first orchestral experience was as a member of the Charlottesville Youth Orchestra YOCVA. Ms. Peral finished high school at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, after which she made her solo debut at the John F. Kennedy Center Concert Hall as a 1987 NFAA Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Ms. Peral holds degrees in music performance from The Juilliard School (MM) and the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM). Her major teachers include Elaine Douvas, John Mack, and Daniel Stolper.
Ms. Peral currently lives in Orange, her hometown, with her daughter Sydney. She also enjoys gardening, exploring local farms, tap dancing, great books, and her entertaining cat and chickens. She is proud to see her parents still performing with the Orange Community Band which they helped establish in 1978.

Ayn Balija
Violist Ayn Balija leads a musically rich life performing and teaching throughout the country.
She is currently the Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Virginia, Principal Violist of the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, and violist of the Rivanna String Quartet. She has also been on faculty at James Madison University and Lorain County Community College. She presents masterclasses throughout the south-central region of the country. During the summer she is on faculty at the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts.
As an orchestral musician Ms. Balija has performed in such venues as Heinz Hall and Carnegie Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony as well as performs with the Richmond Symphony, Williamsburg Symphonia, Charlottesville Opera, Victory Hall Opera, and the Roanoke Symphony. For twelve years she was also a tenured member of ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus helping to promote new music for chamber orchestra through commissions and recordings of new works under the Summit label. Ms. Balija has performed additional chamber works at Yachats Summer Music Festival (OR), North Carolina Chamber Music Festival (NC), and the Staunton Music Festival (VA).
As a soloist, Ms. Balija has performed recitals in New Zealand, Oregon, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia focusing on promoting the versatility of the viola. She has also been invited to solo with the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts Orchestra and the Charlottesville Symphony.
A devoted pedagogue, Ms. Balija strives to promote a diverse learning experience. In 2014, Ms. Balija created Violapalooza, an annual, all-viola day, featuring viola ensembles, workshops, guest viola artists teaching and preforming for the education and enjoyment of violists of all ages.  Guests have included top violists Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Paul Neubauer, and George Taylor. In addition to maintaining a private studio, she teaches in the Charlottesville City and Albemarle County school districts through the Boyd Tinsley Foundation and the Symphony’s Preludes program coaching and mentoring young musicians.
Ms. Balija has also presented at the American String Teachers Association and been published on the American Viola Society’s Teacher’s Toolbox page. In 2017 she presented a lecture at the 44th International Viola Congress in Wellington, NZ.
Ayn Balija holds a Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Masters of Music from The Cleveland Institute of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts from James Madison University. Her principal mentors have been Peter Slowik, Jeffrey Irvine, and Karen Tuttle.
When not performing, Ms. Balija enjoys spending time in nature and baking for all her colleagues in the orchestra.

John Mayhood
Canadian pianist John Mayhood has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout North America, as well as in Germany and Austria. He has frequently appeared on CBC and SRC radio as well as on various NPR affiliates, and his performances have been televised in both the USA and Canada. In constant demand as a collaborator, John has appeared with musicians from the Montreal and Toronto Symphonies, the New York Philharmonic, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, among many others. Also a scholar, he has presented on subjects ranging from the philosophy of performance practice to neo-Riemannian theory at, among other places, the University of Chicago and the annual meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie.
John's current projects include recording and producing editions of sonatas by Johann Peter Pixis and preparing a series of concerts to celebrate, in 2013, the 50th anniversary of the death of Paul Hindemith. Upcoming engagements will take him from Montreal to Phoenix in a variety of concerto, solo and chamber music settings, in works ranging from Beethoven's Choral Fantasy to Matthew Burtner's 2010 work for piano and electro-acoustics, "Iceprints".
John earned his Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with Ian Hobson. His other major teachers were Caio Pagano and Jean-Paul Sévilla. John has taught piano at the University of Illinois and philosophy at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. He is currently a member of the piano faculty at the University of Virginia.
 

Individual Tickets: $15 General / $13 for UVa Faculty and Staff / $5 Students / Free for UVA Students who reserve in advance / Free for students under 18.  Tickets and subscriptions can be purchased at the UVA Arts Box Office website or by calling 434-924-3376.  To see all events in the UVA Chamber Music Series, please visithttp://music.virginia.edu/uvacms

Old Cabell Hall is located on the south end of UVA's historic lawn, directly opposite the Rotunda.  (map) Parking is available in the central grounds parking garage on Emmet Street, in the C1 parking lot off McCormick Rd, and in the parking lots at the UVA Corner.  Handicap parking is available in the small parking lot adjacent to Bryan Hall.

To see all events in the UVA Chamber Music Series, please visit http://music.virginia.edu/uvacms

All programs are subject to change.