Flautist Christina Jennings and pianist Margaret McDonald, both on the music faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder, combine their considerable talents in a free UCSB doctor of musical arts concert at 8 p.m. Friday in UCSB’s Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall.
McDonald, who also serves as a faculty member in the collaborative piano program at the Music Academy of the West, is the one now completing her doctorate at the university.
The program Jennings and McDonald will perform includes François Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, Opus 164 (1956–57), Paul Schoenfield’s Slovakian Children’s Songs, Walter Gieseking’s Sonatine and Mike Mower’s Sonata Latino.
Jennings is the first flutist in 15 years to win the Concert Artists Guild International Competition. She serves as principal flute with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Houston), collaborates with pianist Lura Johnson, and enjoys mixing disciplines through projects with David Parsons Dance Companies and members of Pilobolus.
Jennings received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Juilliard. She will lead a master class with UCSB students from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in Karl Geiringer Hall. Admission will be $15.
Don’t let the relative unfamiliarity of this program lead you to suspect a relentless, aggressive modernism. Poulenc’s Flute Sonata is a delightful, airy work with much to please and nothing to offend.
Schoenfield is a native of Detroit. He holds a degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and a doctor of music arts degree from the University of Arizona. His signature is combining popular, folk and traditional classical music. He is also an avid scholar of mathematics and Hebrew. The famous French-German pianist Walter Gieseking (1895–1956) was less well-known as a composer than his keyboardist compatriot, Robert Casadesus, but he had a master’s way with a tune, nevertheless.
Mower is a native of England. He has been composing “cross-over” music — music fusing classical and jazz styles — for many years. He studied flute at the Royal Academy of Music in London and was later awarded the ARAM (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music). As a freelance musician, he has played and recorded with such diverse artists as Gil Evans, Tina Turner, Paul Weller, Björk, James Galway and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
The other visitor to perform on campus is Margo Halsted, a visiting associate professor in the UCSB Department of Music, who will play a recital on the 61-bell, five-octave carillon at the top of Storke Tower.
The concert will start at 3 p.m. Sunday and last for about one hour. Listeners are encouraged to bring lawn chairs to sit near the tower. There will be a video feed during the performance so that the listeners below will be able to see how a carillon is played.
For more information, call 805.893.7001.
Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.