2009-10 Ewell Concert Series

Each year the Department of Music sponsors a number of musical performances as part of its acclaimed Ewell Concert Series. Concerts in this series can range from classical offerings to modern, avant-garde fare; and might feature performers of traditional American music or musicians from around the globe. Most of the events take place in Ewell Recital Hall on campus and are typically offered at no charge. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend. 

A recent review [pdf] by John Shulson in the Virginia Gazette notes that the "Ewell Concert Series offers diverse musical events of high merit . . . . Another nifty aspect of it is the outreach that comes with many of the artists presented."

For more information please call Judy Zwerdling Zwelling, Ewell Concert Series Manager, at 757-221-1082 (voicemail) or Brian Hulse, Ewell Concert Series Chair, at 757-221-1044.

• Download the poster [pdf] for this year's concert series

You might also want to check out the W&M Lively Arts Series.

Russell Sherman, Pianist
Sunday, October 25, 2009
7:30 p.m., Williamsburg Library Theatre

Tickets: $8.00 General Public, $5.00 Students. Tickets available at the door. Call 221-1073 for more information.

“Quite simply one of the best pianists in this or any other country” (The New York Times).

Russell Sherman has been hailed as a first class virtuoso, garnering accolades for his grace, imagination and poetic playing. The first American pianist to record all of the sonatas and concertos of Beethoven, Sherman has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra,  the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has played in the major cities of  Europe, Asia, and South America. Sherman is also the author of the acclaimed book Piano Pieces. Currently  Distinguished Artist-in-Residence  at the New England Conservatory of Music, Russell Sherman will play a program of Debussy and Chopin preludes.

This performance is jointly sponsored by the Williamsburg Regional Library’s Dewey Decibel Series and the Reves Center for International Studies.

Paris Piano Trio
Wednesday,  November 11, 2009
7:30 p.m., Williamsburg Library Theatre

Tickets: $8.00 General Public, $5.00 Students. Tickets available at the door. Call 221-1073 for more information.

Noted for their “polish, vigor, and an exemplary sense of style” (The Washington Post), these three great French soloists have been connected by their love of chamber music since they were students at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris. Prize-winners individually, each graduated with top honors from the Conservatory—where they are now professors—and rapidly established major solo and chamber music careers. As a trio they express simultaneously their musical individuality as well as their total musical rapport, earning them the name of “Les Musiciens” in Europe. The Paris Piano Trio’s first major tour of the United States, in January 1998, won superlatives from critics and audiences across the nation, and the Trio has since performed in major cities from Washington to Los Angeles and in Latin America, Europe, and Canada. Recordings include Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich on the Lyrinx label, the trios of Schubert and Brahms, and the chamber music of Chausson on the Harmonia Mundi label.

This concert is jointly sponsored by the Williamsburg Regional Library’s Dewey Decibel Series and the Reves Center for International Studies.

Flexible Music Ensemble
Sunday, March 21, 2010
8:00 p.m., Ewell Recital Hall

“The members of Flexible Music are undaunted by the repertoire’s formidable demands. The results are varied and vital, a feast of intimate musical possibilities.”(Gramophone, August 2009).

With an instrumentation that blurs the line between jazz, rock, and classical music, Flexible Music is an ensemble of saxophone, guitar, piano and percussion. Since its formation in 2003, the group has commissioned over 30 pieces. “Virtuosity and seamless ensemble playing are obviously Flexible Music hallmarks” (New Music Box, July 2009). Concerts in Flexible Music’s current season include appearances at the Macau International Music Festival in China, the University of Montreal, and the Kennedy Center. The group has performed as part of Chamber Music Now (Philadelphia) and the Evolution Music Series (Baltimore), has participated in residencies at the Manhattan School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and has conducted Master Classes at the Peabody Institute of Music and American University. Flexible Music won grants from the American Music Center’s Copland Fund, the American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer’s JPMorgan Chase Regrant Program, and the Mikhashoff Trust for New Music.

Free admission, no tickets required.

There will be a Composer Reading Session, Ewell Recital Hall, Sunday, March 21, 2010, before the concert. The public is invited, and admission is free. Contact Brian Hulse for more information.

Halcyon Trio Oregon
Saturday, April 10, 2010
8:00 p.m., Williamsburg Presbyterian Church

Free admission, no tickets required.

Halcyon Trio Oregon—soprano Jackie Van Paepeghem, trumpeter Joan Haaland Paddock and pianist/organist Debra Huddleston—is a versatile chamber music ensemble of engaging performers. Unusual in its instrumentation, the Trio brings to life sacred and secular music from the Eleventh through the Twenty-first century and performs commissioned works by composers in the United States and Canada. Halcyon Trio Oregon was awarded the distinguished Neskowin Chamber Music Fellowship for new, developing chamber ensembles in the Pacific Northwest. The Trio was featured in the culminating concert for the Tenth Anniversary Celebration of the West Norway Emigration Center in Sletta (Bergen), Norway in July 2007. In May 2008 the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation of Portland, Oregon, presented the Trio’s premiere performance of Norwegian Folksong Variations by William and Mary composer Greg Bowers. The Trio will perform throughout the United States and Central America during its 2009-2010 season.

This concert is co-sponsored by the Reves Center for International Studies.

A Composition Master Class will take place on Friday, April 9, 2010 at the Presbyterian Church. The public is invited and admission is free. Contact Greg Bowers for more information.

Irfan Khan, Sarod
Sunday, April 25, 2010
8:00 p.m., Ewell Recital Hall

Free admission, no tickets required.

Irfan Muhammad Khan is a master performer of the sarod, one of the most celebrated stringed instruments of North India. Mr. Khan descends from a long line of renowned sarod players who have passed their art—with its treasured oral traditions-—from father to son in an unbroken chain stretching back to the early 19th century. With his home base in Calcutta, Khan has concertized extensively in India and Germany. In the 1980s, he lived for three years in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he performed and taught as a cultural arts’ ambassador for the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. From 1995 to 2009 he was the head of the Department of Music at an elite private school in Assam, India.  Irfan Muhammad Khan makes his first visit to the United States for this performance, coming to us directly from Kabul, where he has again been teaching and performing since September 2009.

This concert is co-sponsored by the Reves Center for International Studies.

A Master Class will be given by Mr. Khan. The public is invited and admission is free. Contact Max Katz for more information.