The Rite of Spring
On Saturday, February 26th 2022 the UVA Department of Music presents a new arrangement of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at 8pm in Old Cabell Hall. This free concert will be performed by UVA Department of Music faculty members I-Jen Fang (percussion) and John Mayhood (piano) in collaboration with percussionist Brian Smith and pianist Shelby Sender. Smith is a Texas-based percussionist, chamber musician, and arranger, and Sender is a Charlottesville-based pianist and frequent performer on the UVA faculty chamber music series. Their program will feature a new arrangement of Stravinsky’s seminal work, The Rite of Spring, for two pianos and percussion.
Program:
Four Laws by Zachary Wadsworth (composed for I-Jen Fang & Brian Smith; premiered in 2015)
Danza de los Saqsampillos for two marimbas by Gabriela Lena Frank
The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, arranged by Brian Smith & Peter White
In this new arrangement of The Rite of Spring, Smith & White aim to create a chamber version of The Rite with the same range of color, complexity, and drama as the full orchestral work. Drawing on numerous editions, they incorporate much of the melodic and harmonic content that is absent from Stravinsky’s own 4-hand piano arrangement. Premiered in 2019 at the Staunton Music Festival, this new adaptation for chamber ensemble conjures the richly colorful and powerful large-scale version of Stravinsky’s 20th century masterpiece.
This may be your only chance to hear The Rite of Spring performed live in Charlottesville! This is a concert you do not want to miss!
This event is supported by the Eleanor Shea Music Trust.
Described as an “intrepid percussionist” by Fanfare Magazine, I-Jen Fang has a career as a solo performer, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher. She joined the faculty of the Music Department at the University of Virginia in 2005 and as the Principal Timpanist and Percussionist of the Charlottesville Symphony. As a soloist, I-Jen has performed as a marimba soloist in Taiwan, U.S., Austria, France, Hungary, Romania, and South Africa. As a chamber musician, I-Jen has performed or recorded with artists such as Keiko Abe, William Cahn, Christopher Deane, Mark Ford, Edward Janning, Heini Kärkkäinen, Mike Mainieri, Jan Müller-Szeraws, Diane Pascal, Carsten Schmidt, Ed Smith, Michael Spiro, Nanik Wenton, Nyoman Wenton, EcoSono Ensemble, Cantata Profana, Attacca Percussion Group, and DaCapo Chamber Players. She has appeared in Heritage Theater Festival, Staunton Music Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Wintergreen Festival, Percussive Arts Society International Convention and Regional PAS Day of Percussion.
An advocate of New Music, I-Jen is currently the director of the UVA New Music Ensemble. The ensemble has collaborated with composer/improviser George Lewis, flutist Claire Chase, and performed for composers such as Phillip Glass and Christian Wolff. She has also commissioned and/or premiered works by Jon Bellona, Matt Boehler, Becky Brown, Matthew Burtner, Alex, Christie, Ted Coffey, Kevin Davis, Christopher Deane, John D’earth, Erik DeLuca, Aurie Hsu, Christopher Luna-Mega, Sarah O’Halloran, Chris Peck, Leah Reid, Judith Shatin, Brian Simalchik, Ed Smith, D.J. Sparr, Max Tfirn, Zachary Wadsworth, Kristina Warren, and Michele Zaccagnini.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, I-Jen began her musical education at age six taking piano. Taking up percussion at the age of nine, she came to the United States at age fifteen to pursue her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Percussion Performance at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas where she served as a teaching fellow. I-Jen is an Innovative Percussion and Marimba One artist.
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 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.
Shelby Sender received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Maryland in 2013. She is active as both a solo and collaborative pianist. She has performed at both the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Hungarian Ambassador's Residence. A faculty member of Crescendo, a classical music festival located in Tokaj, Hungary each summer, she is also a co-founder and the accompanist for Mosaic Children's Choir in Charlottesville. In March 2012, she performed in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall as a part of the Adamant School of Music's 70th Anniversary Concert. Shelby was featured in a 2011 festival at Ithaca College commemorating the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt's birth, and she recently gave world premieres of works by Walter Gieseking at the American Musicological Society's 2009 annual conference. She frequently works with the Charlottesville Opera as well as Victory Hall Opera and has appeared on multiple occasions with the Annapolis Chamber Players. She can be heard on a Centaur recording of unpublished works by Walter Gieseking, playing both solo and chamber music.
In 2018, Dr. Sender was sent by the Sister Cities Commission to Pleven Bulgaria to represent Charlottesville in concert. She studied during the 2010/2011 academic year under Kálmán Dráfi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. She gave performances in Bartók Hall at the Institute for Musicology and the Régi Zeneakadémia at the Franz Liszt Memorial House and Museum in Hungary, as well as the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Universität der Kunste in Berlin.
Shelby received her Master of Music degree from the University of Maryland and her Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College. She is the co-founder for Mosaic Children's Choir, a group that incorporates movement, drama, dance, and performs in non-traditional spaces. Until recently, she was the coordinator for the class piano program at the University of Maryland, where she also taught class piano and gave private lessons to piano minors. She currently maintains a private studio in Central Virginia and works as the choral and orchestral pianist at St. Anne's-Belfield in Charlottesville. Recent teachers include Bradford Gowen, Read Gainsford, and Jennifer Hayghe.
Brian Smith is a musician and writer interested in exploring cultural practices, social forces, and technology through the medium of sound and musical performance. Praised for his feline-like grace as a percussionist, Brian delivers “committed and energetic” performances with a versatile repertoire that includes historical, contemporary, and experimental musical practices. His primary work as a contemporary percussionist incorporates many electro-acoustic and multimedia pieces. As a co-founder and member of the ensemble ScreenPlay, he pursues a deep interest in experimental musical practices and improvisation through audio-visual works that utilize animated notational schemes. Brian’s current “solo” project, Human+, combines his interest in technologically-mediated sonic arts with a fiendish advocacy for new works by living composers to develop a repertoire of duets for musical robotics and percussionist. As an orchestral percussionist, Brian has performed with ensembles throughout the U.S. and Europe, appearing in world-class concert halls including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Berlin Philharmonie. He plays period timpani and percussion with the Staunton Music Festival, and his ethnographic interests include West African drumming and dance from Ghana, Togo, and Benin.
An experienced educator, Brian has taught at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visuals Arts, the University of Lynchburg, Randolph College, Stony Brook University, and Texas State University. He also served as a Teaching Artist with the nationally renowned ensemble, Tales & Scales, working in local schools and community centers as an artist-in-residence.
Brian received Bachelor and Masters degrees from the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University. He currently lives in Central TX.
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 Road, and in the parking lots at the UVA Corner.
This is free and open to the public (no tickets required). The performance will also be live-streamed at https://bit.ly/rite-of-spring-uva.
Please call the Music Department at 434.924.3052 for more information.
According to UVA policy SEC-045, Face Masks are required for all people (e.g., students, faculty, staff, contractors, and visitors), both vaccinated and unvaccinated, who enter UVA properties.
All events are subject to change.