UCSB Arts & Lectures will present violinist Jennifer Koh, with pianist Shai Wosner, performing the second part of their groundbreaking series “Bridge to Beethoven: Finding Identity through Music,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, 2016, in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.
“Bridge to Beethoven” is a four-part project that “explores the impact and significance of Beethoven’s music on a diverse group of composers and musicians.”
New commissions from composers such as Vijay Iyer (whose piece, Bridgetower Fantasy premiered in Santa Barbara in 2015) and Andrew Norman serve as companion pieces to Beethoven’s violin sonatas.
The series seeks to ignite creative conversations around his music not only as a cornerstone of classical music but as a universal, culture-crossing source of inspiration.
“We passionately believe,” say the musicians, “in the constant evolution of classical music as a vital, living organism through its capacity to include a myriad of influences and hope to illustrate the sustained power of Beethoven’s revolutionary voice in our present day community of artists and audiences.”
The Koh-Wosner program will consist of the three violin-piano sonatas of Op. 30 by Ludwig Beethoven — No. 6 in A-Major, No. 8 in G-Major, No. 7 in c-minor, all from 1803 — interspersed with short and new works by the American composer Andrew Norman (b. 1979).
Norman’s website says that he “is a Los Angeles-based composer of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music. A lifelong enthusiast for all things architectural, Andrew writes music that is often inspired by patterns and textures he encounters in the visual world. He has a passion for musical notation, its long history, and the many ways its boundaries can be pushed to find new modes of expression. He also loves collaborating with performers to explore the act of interpreting notation and he is fascinated by the translation of written symbols into physical gesture and sound.”
From what I have heard of Norman’s bold, rather attractive works, the most obvious influence of Beethoven is their big sound, their confidence and originality.
Tickets to “A Bridge to Beethoven, Part II” are $32 for the general public and $10 for UCSB students with a current student ID. A Hahn Hall facility fee will be added to each ticket price.
For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at 805.893.3535 or purchase online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.