Again this year, the Piatigorsky Foundation is sponsoring a classical music performance in Dubois, free of charge to listeners. It’s impossible to say exactly what the musicians will perform, but it’s certain to be unusual and interesting.
The performers, “marvelous” clarinetist Katsuya Yuasa and pianist Mary Au, have presented a long list of possibilities, but they won’t choose the actual pieces to perform until the time of the concert.
These may include a few short pieces by Robert Schumann and one by the man who brought tango into the classical music world, Astor Piazzola. But most of the items on the program offer intriguing titles with words like “paradox,” “oblivion,” and in two cases “fantasy,” and were written by newer composers with intriguing biographies.
Deon Nielsen Price began composing seriously to comfort a family whose young son had died in a bicycle accident. “I found that I could express myself better in music than in words,” she said, and much of her music expresses a “deeply spiritual humanitarian concern.”
Another featured composer, Huang Ruo, grew up in China but was trained in the United States. “I feel music is life, breathing and moving,” he has said. “I like to imagine sound being a solid matter, and try to describe it in abstract shapes and colors.” Will the audience hear his composition called “Wind blows…” ?
Or will the performers choose to play “Sunswept” by Adrienne Albert, who began her musical career as a singer with better known composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, and Philip Glass?
We won’t know for sure until after 3 PM on Sunday, October 20, when Au and Yuasa will begin to make their choices – and beautiful music – at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Dubois. You don’t need to bring anything when you arrive, except a pair of good ears and an interest in hearing something new and unusual.
The concert is provided by the Piatigorsky Foundation and sponsored by the Muriel & Seymour Thickman Foundation, with additional support from the Wyoming Arts Council.
Sponsored post from Dubois Chamber Music