Pomona College’s Department of Music announces its Spring 2018 season featuring an array of music from a wide range of genres, eras and musical backgrounds. Special performances and guests will join Pomona College’s performance faculty and student ensembles on the schedule.
Opening the season are guests Christine Brandes (soprano), known for her radiant voice and superb musicianship and award-winning Eric Moe, (composer/pianist) on Saturday, January 27 in a recital of music by Debussy, Schubert, Moe and others at 8 p.m. in Bridges Hall of Music, 150 E. Fourth St., Claremont.
In February, the annual Ussachevsky Memorial Festival of Electro Acoustic Music returns for its 26th year with two concerts and a lecture/demonstration by special guest composer Zeena Parkins. Performing works by Parkins and others are the Eclipse Quartet, Ko Umezaki (shakuhachi), Aron Kallay and Genevieve Feiwen Lee (pianos), Rachel Rudich (flute) and Cynthia Fogg (viola) in this two-day event in Lyman Hall on February 2 and 3.
The following month brings Grammy award-winning organist Paul Jacob, hailed as “one of the great living virtuosos” by the Washington Post, to Bridges Hall of Music on Sunday, March 25 at 3 p.m. Known for his ability to transfix audiences with imaginative interpretations and charismatic stage presence, his program, to be performed on the Hill Memorial Organ (Fisk Op. 117) will include music by J.S. Bach and Liszt.
In addition to these special programs, the spring season also offers two recitals featuring the faculty performers. The first, a Special Concert for Family Weekend on Friday, February 16 at 8 p.m. offers performances by Gary Bovyer (clarinet), Carolyn Beck (bassoon), Sarah Thornblade (violin), Maggie Parkins (cello), Genevieve Feiwen Lee (piano), Jack Sanders (guitar), Jason Yoshida (theorbo), Joti Rockwell (mandolin) and others. The second, a Chamber Music Recital on Sunday, March 4 at 3 p.m. brings Connie Deeter (bass), Rachel Rudich (flute), Kenneth Foerch (saxophone), Francisco Castillo (oboe), Carolyn Beck (bassoon), Phillip Keen (trombone), Stephen Klein (tuba), Mary Dropkin (harp), Jennie Jung, Gayle Blankenburg & Phillip Young (pianos) and others together for a variety of chamber selections.
Rounding out the series are performances numerous student ensembles and faculty members in a variety of concerts, and solo and chamber recitals. Among them are College Organist William Peterson on Sunday, February 11 at 3 p.m.; Cornucopia Baroque Ensemble with Alfred Cramer and Lyndsey Strand-Polyak (baroque violins), Aki Nishiguchi (baroque oboe), Carolyn Beck (baroque bassoon), Roger Lebow (baroque cello), Jason Yoshida (theorbo) and Graydon Beeks (harpsichord) on Sunday, April 8 at 3 p.m.; and the Pomona College Choir and Orchestra in a joint concert on Friday, April 13 at 8 p.m. and repeated on Sunday, April 15 at 3 p.m. with guest soloists Hayden Eberhart (soprano) and Scott Graff (baritone) in Poulenc’s Gloria and Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem.
The Music Department’s Spring 2018 Season Concert Calendar is available online at www.pomona.edu/music-calendar or can be picked up in the Music Department located in Thatcher Music Building, 150 N. College Ave, Claremont on the campus of Pomona College. All the department’s offerings are free and open to the public.
VENUES
Thatcher Music Building: 340 N. College Ave, Claremont, 91711
Bridges Hall of Music: 150 E. Fourth St., Claremont 91711