USCB Chamber Music’s first concert of its 38th season will be presented at 5:00pm on Sunday, November 5. As has been the case since the series’ inception, this concert will offer a variety of musical styles and time periods. Featuring flute, cello, and piano, the concert begins with a work from the 1730’s, J.S. Bach’s Sonata in E-flat Major for Flute and Keyboard, BWV 1031.
It is certainly the most beloved of Bach’s flute sonatas, in part because its three movements are filled with light, song-like melodies. Composer Arvo Part’s Fratres (1977) has been arranged for many combinations. This performance will be for cello and piano. The music is universal in its appeal: mesmerizing, stilling, and haunting. Fratres is so evocative that it has been used on 10 movie sound tracks since 1987. Philippe Gaubert, famed as a Parisian flutist, was one of the primary exponents of the French flute school. His Trois Aquarelles for flute and piano, begun in 1915 while serving in the French army, reveal nothing of the horrors of trench warfare. These miniatures are cheerful, sunlit and energetic, subdued and gentle, and conclude with a Spanish Serenade. Syrinx, the Greek name for panpipes, was written by Claude Debussy in 1913 as incidental music to the play Psyche. Its erotic and haunting tones convey the image of moonlight, under which white-clad nymphs emerge to dance, lounge about in the water, and gather flowers. The concert concludes with Carl Maria von Weber’s Trio in g minor, Op. 63. Written in 1818-19, it projects the warmth and comfort of a middle class drawing room and will leave the listener feeling entertained, charmed, and satisfied.
Flute soloist Tara Helen O’Connor (above) is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone spanning every musical era. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two time Grammy nominee, she is a Season Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Ms. O’Connor holds a DMA from Stony Brook University, where she studied with Samuel Baron and is currently Associate Professor of Flute at Purchase College. She is well known to lowcountry audiences because of her many performances at the Spoleto Festival. Pianist Phillip Bush is also familiar to South Carolina audiences. He holds the rank of Associate Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the University of South Carolina and continues to concertize around the globe. A musician with an extraordinarily wide breadth of musical interests, his repertoire spans the last five centuries, with a special affinity for the music of our time. Host and cellist Edward Arron needs no introduction as Beaufort has become, for him, a second home. Also a college professor (Umass-Amherst) his wit and droll humor both engage and captivate audiences. His playing reveals a probing musical mind and, as the New Yorker wrote in June, 2017, he is “a deeply expressive cellist.”
Come and experience the intimate conversation of chamber music among friends. Information and tickets are available on http://www.uscb.edu/chambermusicor at 843-208-8246, Monday through Friday. The USCB Center for the Arts, located at 801 Carteret Street, opens at 3:00pm on the day of the concert. A free Preconcert Conversation with Dr. Michael Johns will be held in the concert hall from 4:00-4:30. The performance begins at 5:00 pm, Sunday, November 5.
