CONWAY, Ark. (February 10, 2012) — The Hendrix College music department in conjunction with Hendrix College Special Events and The Department of Arkansas Heritage will sponsor Persistence of Melody, a recital of chamber music. The recital will be performed by cellist Felice Magendanz-Farrell, French hornist David Renfro, and pianist Naoki Hakutani at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 20 in Reves Recital Hall on the Hendrix College campus.
The event is free and open to the public.
The program will include British Songs by Paul Schoenfeld, Larghetto for horn and orchestra by Emmanuel Chabrier, and Ballade by Robert Boury. The program will conclude with the premiere of Karen Griebling’s Persistence of Melody.
Griebling, professor of music at Hendrix, is a native of Akron, Ohio. Griebling came to Conway in 1987 after earning a doctorate in music composition from the University of Texas at Austin. She also earned a master’s degree from the University of Houston and a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. Her compositions have been commissioned, performed, published, recorded, and warmly received in Europe, Asia and North America. Her work includes a range of music from operas, ballets, chamber music, and choral and symphonic works. Griebling’s work may be heard on Centaur and Vienna Modern Masters CDs. Her music is available through her publishers, Jeanne, Gems Music Publications, MAST, and Musicalligraphics, and directly from Griebling. Griebling is a Broadcast Music, Inc. composer.
The title of Karen Griebling’s trio, Persistence of Melody, was inspired by a play on words based on her belief that a memorable melody or motif is an essential ingredient to a piece of music and the title of one of Salvador Dali’s most persistently memorable paintings, Persistence of Memory. Dali’s painting also provided the inspiration for the music in its first movement. Griebling has long been a fan of Spanish Surrealism and of Dali’s image of the dripping clocks, depicted by glissandi and a “tick tock” musical motif that becomes twisted and warped as the movement progresses.
The second movement is inspired by a lesser-known work by Dali, The Red Orchestra, in which is depicted the figure vaguely reminiscent of the famous Spanish cellist, Pablo Casals, bent over a cello that resembles the body of a woman, The cellist appears to be playing with great passion against the backdrop of a pianist playing a grand piano that makes a clever visual reference simultaneously to the bull and the matador’s cape, while the pianist resembles the same figure that appears in Picasso’s Blue Period Paintings including the Blue Guitar.
The final painting of the triptych, Three Young Surrealist Musicians, depicts three young women with instruments in attitudes that suggest being depleted after the final virtuoso performance on a concert; the horn lies at their feet, the cello is draped over the arms of one figure in much the same way as the clocks were in the first movement, and the piano appears to have taken a beating and lies disfigured and tipped because it is missing a leg.
Felice Magendanz-Farrell was born in Utica, N.Y., and educated at Indiana University under artists, Janos Starker, Josef Gingold and Gyorgy Sebok. Chamber music and teaching have been her enduring pursuits throughout her life from Indiana University to Minnesota University, Eastman School of Music, University of Central Arkansas, to concerts in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Europe and Eastern Europe.
Japanese American pianist Naoki Hakutani, a native of Kent, Ohio, has performed as a soloist and collaborator across the U.S. as well as Mexico, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Hakutani is currently serving as assistant professor of piano at The University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He received degrees from Northwestern University and Indiana University in Bloomington prior to receiving the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
A native of Kingsport, Tenn., hornist David Renfro received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in horn performance from the Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music. Currently, David resides in Little Rock, where he is in his seventh season with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, currently serving as principal horn. In 2010 he also became the symphony’s Orchestra Personnel and Operations Manager. Prior to that appointment, David taught horn and music at Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University. In addition to his duties with the orchestra, David maintains an active teaching studio and performs regularly as a chamber musician and soloist.
For more information, contact Dr. Griebling at (501) 450-1249 or griebling@hendrix.edu.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. Hendrix was named the country’s #1 “Up and Coming” liberal arts college for the third consecutive year by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2011 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country’s best 376 colleges and is listed in the 2012 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges as one of 25 “Best Buy” private colleges included. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.