Department of Music

• Thursday, November 20th, 2008
• Old Cabell Hall
• 8:00pm
• $20 general public/ $10 for students/ 5 ARTS $ for UVa students/ Free under 18

The Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster, David Colwell and accomplished pianist, Michael Mizrahi will perform the second concert of the University of Virginia Faculty Chamber Series on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 8pm in Old Cabell Hall on the grounds of the University of Virginia. Highlighting the extraordinary talents of these two exceptional musicians, the concert will feature three sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart, Bartók and Faure.

A member of the performance faculty at the University of Virginia since 2006, David Colwell serves as first violin in the Rivanna String Quartet. He has studied at the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and performed at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. In 2007, Mr. Colwell participated in the Banff Center’s Chamber Music Residency as a member of the Mondrian Piano Quartet. In addition, Mr. Colwell maintains a violin studio, coaches chamber ensembles and is completing work for the Doctor of Musical Arts from Yale.

Acclaimed by the Washington Post for his “splendid powers of concentration” and by The San Diego Union-Tribune for his performances that are “exciting to watch and hear,” Michael Mizrahi has performed as concerto soloist, chamber musician and recitalist in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Houston Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra. An enthusiastic advocate of music education, he participates in the Weill Music Institute, a program which introduces New York City school children to leading artists and entrepreneurs of classical music. He also is a founding member of NOW, an ensemble devoted to the performance and creation of contemporary music, as well as the Moët Piano Trio in residence at the New England Conservatory of Music. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Mr. Mizrahi earned a Doctorate from Yale. Former teachers include Robert Wyatt, Eric Himy, Mary Kathleen Ernst, and George François.

Each work in the evening’s performance represents a different century, illustrating how each composer took the musical form of sonata and made it his own, instead of the patent Beethoven four movement compositions. From the eighteenth century, Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-flat Major, K. 378 provides the instrumentalists an opportunity to showcase Mozart’s melodic and thematic developments in three movements.

Representing the twentieth century, Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano demonstrates Béla Bartók’s attempt to disassociate his music from titles. In the two movement composition, he follows a Hungarian rhapsody pattern beginning with a slow lyrical dialogue between the violin and piano which by the second movement finishes in an energetic dance. Written in 1922, the sonata contains the results of Bartók’s extensive research into Hungarian folk tunes, filled with demanding, complex music, sometimes thoughtful and other times surprising, always virtuosic.

From the nineteenth century, Gabriel Fauré’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, Op. 13 is considered the first major French work for violin and piano. Within its four movements, Fauré presents a delightful and enchanting piece highlighted by his characteristic enharmonic key changes and a surprisingly original scherzo. Written when Fauré was thirty-one-years-old, his first chamber music work was first performed at the Société nationale de musique. Founded by Camille Saint-Saëns, the Société nationale permitted performances of young aspiring composers. This established a relationship between Saint-Saëns and Fauré which would last a lifetime.