Department of Music

The McIntire Department of Music is pleased to present the 2017-2018 University of Virginia Chamber Music Series. This annual series, which presents innovative performances by the University of Virginia's world-class faculty and celebrated guest artists, is comprised of six professional performances for the University and the central Virginia community. These intimate afternoon concerts are programmed to offer both new and traditional works that will delight audiences of all musical tastes.

The Rivanna String Quartet rings in 2018 with an afternoon of string quartet classics on Sunday, January 28 at 3:30 pm in Old Cabell Hall. The group will perform two masterworks by Ludwig van Beethoven that span his compositional output. Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 3 and String Quartet, Op. 132 will bookend the group’s performance, which also includes Arvo Pärt’s sonorous Fratres. This resident ensemble is comprised McIntire Department of Music string faculty members Daniel Sender and David Sariti, violins; Ayn Balija, viola; and Adam Carter, cello.

Violist Ayn Balija leads a musically rich life performing and teaching throughout the country. She joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 2007 as Lecturer of Viola. Along with maintaining a studio, she also serves as the principal violist of the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia and is the violist of the Rivanna String Quartet. Ms. Balija performs solo, chamber, and orchestral works around the country.  A devoted pedagogue, Ms. Balija teaches privately throughout the community. She has maintained a small private studio and taught as a Boyd Tinsley fellow, providing private instruction to musically gifted low-income students in the Charlottesville City School system.  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. She has studied with Peter Slowik, James Dunham, Jeffrey Irvine, Karen Tuttle, Victoria Chiang, and Amadi Azikiwe. Her principal mentors have been Peter Slowik, Jeffrey Irvine, and Karen Tuttle.

Cellist Adam Carter maintains an active career as a recitalist, chamber and orchestral musician, and teacher. Recent engagements include recitals and chamber music performances at UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, the University of Virginia, Randolph College, Bridgewater College and Hampden-Sydney College. Dr. Carter is currently the principal cellist of the Charlottesville Symphony and has performed with the Richmond Symphony, Madison Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Erie Philharmonic and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. A top prizewinner at the 1998 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Dr. Carter continues to enjoy a rich and diverse career playing chamber music. He currently performs with the Rivanna String Quartet, Artemis Duo and the Virginia Sinfonietta. A founding member of the Tarab Cello Ensemble, Dr. Carter traveled the country playing new works for cello octet. The ensemble’s accolades include grants from the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music for its accomplishments in the performance and creation of contemporary American music, the Foreman Institute for the Creative and Performing Arts and the Fromm Foundation. The Ensemble has recorded on Bridge Records and Albany Records.

Violinist David Sariti is known for his performance and research interests that cut across styles and eras, with a repertoire spanning from the seventeenth century to the present day. He has recently appeared as recitalist at universities across the country, as soloist with orchestra, and in diverse chamber collaborations. A recent all-Mendelssohn piano trio program was hailed as “Chamber music at a high professional level, reflecting credit on the schools that choose to have their students taught by musicians who not only have academic credentials but are also first-class performing artists.” (Classical Voice of North Carolina). His adaptability as a performer extends also to new music, with performances of works by composers throughout the Southeast. Faculty at UVa since 2005, he is Director of the period-instrument Baroque Orchestra, maintains a violin studio, coaches chamber music, performs in the Rivanna Quartet, and is Principal Violin II of the Charlottesville Symphony. He completed his doctorate at Hartt in the Honors Chamber Music program, writing "The Austro-German Violin Sonata, c. 1650". He also holds degrees from the University of Akron and Ithaca College, with election to the National Music Honor Society; studies were with Katie Lansdale, Pamela Gearhart, Pamela Frank and members of the Cleveland and Miami quartets.

Daniel Sender enjoys a diverse musical career and has appeared in concerts throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and China. A frequent guest soloist and principal artist with chamber and symphony orchestras throughout the region, Dr. Sender currently serves as concertmaster of the Charlottesville Symphony, Charlottesville Opera and the Virginia Consort. Dr. Sender was a Fulbright Scholar in Budapest and attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music as a student of Vilmos Szabadi. He was formerly the first violinist of the Adelphi String Quartet, which held a fellowship residency at the University of Maryland, and was for four years the violinist of the Annapolis Chamber Players. Dr. Sender has recorded for Centaur, Sono Luminus, Bifrost and other independent labels. As a chamber musician, Dr. Sender has had the pleasure of performing with members of the Audubon Quartet, Axelrod and Left Bank quartets and spent two years working intensively under the mentorship of the Guarneri Quartet. Chamber concerts have taken him to venues around the world including the Kennedy Center, Hungarian Embassy, Bartók Hall of the Erdödy Palace (Budapest), Smithsonian Museum of American History, Universität der Kunste (Berlin) and the Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal). Dr. Sender attended Ithaca College, the University of Maryland, the Liszt Academy (Budapest) and the Institute for European Studies (Vienna). His primary teachers include Vilmos Szabadi, Arnold Steinhardt, David Salness, René Staar, and Gerald Fischbach. He is on the performance faculty of the University of Virginia’s McIntire Department of Music and also holds a faculty position at Interlochen’s Adult Chamber Music Camp.

Tickets are $15 /$13 UVA Faculty and Staff/$8 students /free for UVA students who reserve in advance and for those under 18.  Tickets can be purchased at the Arts Box Office at 434.924.3376 or visit https://artsboxoffice.virginia.edu/

For additional information, please visit http://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 Road, and in the parking lots at the UVA Corner. 

Please call the Music Department at 434.924.3052 for more information.
All events are subject to change.