Artist Recital Series: UNCW Department of Music Faculty

Wednesday March 15, 2006
MUSIC FACULTY RECITAL FEATURES WORK OF FAMED 19TH CENTURY FEMALE COMPOSER

Wilmington, NC – University of North Carolina Wilmington faculty members will be featured in an Artist Recital Series at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 15 in Kenan Auditorium. Department of Music instructors Joby Brunjes (viola), Richard Thomas (cello) and Karen Rice (piano) will be joined by Doug Merritt (violin), for an evening of chamber music, including a special selection in celebration of Women’s History Month.

The program begins with the 1894 Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia for Violin & Viola, a selection as popular with audiences as it is demanding of the musicians. The beautiful Serenade in C by Hungarian pianist Ern? Von Dohnányi will follow.

The program concludes with Clara Schumann’s passionate and bold Piano Trio, Op. 17. One of the most famous pianists of her times, German composer, Clara Wieck Schumann (l8l9-l896) premiered the works of Frederic Chopin, Johannes Brahms, and her husband Robert Schumann. Composing from the age of nine, her performing career and the responsibility of supporting seven children after her husband's early death limited her ability to focus on her compositions. Nonetheless, she was able to complete 66 works and continue to teach, compose, and tour until her death in 1896. Exemplifying the Romantic style of the time, Piano Trio, Op. 17 is considered by many to be her best work.

Admission is $5 for the general public and free for UNCW students with a valid ID.

For more information, please contact the UNCW Kenan Auditorium Box Office at (910) 962-3500 or the UNCW Department of Music at (910) 962-7416.

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

JOBY BRUNJES is a Wilmington native who is currently on the string faculty of the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In his private teaching, Brunjes fosters a love of music in young people, and pursues the same goal as Associate Conductor of the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra and Conductor of the Junior Strings Division. He serves as principal second violin of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, and this year, will join the viola section of the Long Bay Symphony in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. His education includes a Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in violin performance, Master of Music in conducting from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and a Graduate Professional Diploma in conducting from the Hartt School.

DOUG MERRITT, a native of Rochester, spent the 1980's growing up in Wilmington where he began his musical studies. He earned a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts and a Master of Music in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Merritt served as a violinist with orchestras such as Greensboro Symphony, Canton Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Shreveport Symphony, Huntsville Symphony and many other regional orchestras. Committed to the next generation of musicians, he has maintained an active private teaching studio throughout his career. In addition Merritt taught music classes at Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, and currently teaches an adult string class at Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, North Carolina. His hobbies include collecting old recordings, reading great books, hiking, and studying the stock market.

KAREN RICE has recently completed the coursework for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano at UNC-Greensboro. Along with many solo performances, Ms. Rice has been an active collaborative pianist and has served as accompanist for the NC Choral Director’s Association convention and the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference competition. Prior teaching positions include piano instructor and chair of the piano department at the Music Academy of North Carolina, instructor of musicology at North Carolina A&T State University, class piano instructor at UNC-Greensboro, and piano instructor at the UNCG summer music camp.

RICHARD THOMAS is on the faculties of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the Wilmington Academy of Music and is principal cellist of the Wilmington Symphony. During the summers, he is Head of the String Department at Camp Encore-Coda in Sweden, Maine. Thomas studied cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music, De Pauw University, University of North Texas, and received the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of South Carolina. He is a former member of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia (Bogotá), the Orquesta Sinfónica del Valle (Cali, Colombia) and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de la Rupublica Dominicana (Santo Domingo). Thomas was also on the faculties of the Universidad del Cauca and Universidad del Valle in Colombia, the Conservatorio Nacional in the Dominican Republic, the University of South Carolina, the South Carolina Governor‘s School for the Arts and Humanities and Presbyterian College.

PHOTO CREDIT: UNCW/Jamie Moncrief