On Campus
GOOD TIMING: I had been writing about Maestro
Paul Bambach, UCSB professor and director of the
University Wind Ensemble, for quite a long time before I finally
was introduced to him — out at the Music Academy, I think. As we
shook hands, he said, “I feel like I owe you about 10 years worth
of thank-you’s.”
As charming an opening statement as that was, I must hereby beg
to differ: It is I who owe Bambach and his UCSB colleagues any
number of thank-you’s for their uncanny ability to schedule
concerts just when I need them — such as now.
As I look ahead over the next seven days, everything happening
that would be of interest to a music lover is either happening at
the university or performed by university musicians — starting at 8
p.m. tonight, Thursday, March 9, in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall,
when the University Wind Ensemble, under the baton
of the redoubtable Paul Bambach, will play a program that includes
the Festive Overture of Dmitri Shostakovich and
the Symphony No. 3 of Vittorio Giannini. Tickets
will be available at the door; $12 general admission, $7 for
students.
I have often had occasion to compliment Bambach on his
innovative programming and tonight’s concert is another instance of
it.
Notwithstanding his Mediterranean name, Vittorio Giannini
(1903-1966) is an American composer all the way. His music is
lushly romantic and tuneful, in the vein of Samuel
Barber and Howard Hanson. He was
prolific, and a large part of his output was scored for band.
On the next evening, Friday, March 10, comes one of those events
that one simply takes on faith. The pianist Andrzej
Dutkiewicz, a guest of the UCSB Music Department, will
perform a guest artist recital at 8 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall.
Admission is free. Dutkiewicz, head of contemporary music studies
and professor of piano at the Frederyk Chopin Academy of Music
(a k a Warsaw Conservatory) in Poland, will be “playing a program
of Polish music.” I guess we can count on at least one selection by
Chopin, but there will no doubt be plenty of
surprises.
Friday night at 8 p.m. also marks the return to our fair coast
of choral master extraordinaire Michel Marc
Gervais, who is apparently determined to commute between
his two major appointments — UCSB and Switzerland. Gervais will
lead the University Singers and his celebrated
UCSB Chamber Choir in a “Schubertiad” — a
generally intimate concert devoted to the music of Franz
Schubert — in San Roque Church (325 Argonne Circle). The
maestro has chosen for his soloists the mezzo-soprano
Parvaneh Givi and the tenor Dan
Plaster, with the remarkable Sarah
Broomell providing instrumental support on the piano. The
Schubert in question is a composer of choral chamber music. The
program includes rarely heard works for female, male, and mixed
voices, including “Coronach” Opus 52; “Gott ist mein Hirt” (Psalm
23) Opus 132; “Ständchen,” Opus 135; “Nachthelle,” Opus 134; “Der
Gondelfahrer,” Opus 28; “Begräbnislied,” D.168; “Des Tages Weihe,”
Opus 146; and “Gebet,” Opus 139.
Admission to the “Schubertiad” is $12 general, $7 for students,
in the form of a donation at the door.
Finally, Lorenz Gamma, who in the new
dispensation is the University Symphony conductor
for winter quarter 2006, will conduct the symphony in a delightful
program that includes a performance of the striking first movement
of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Opus
107 with the 2006 concerto competition winner, cellist
Hilary Clark, in the solo role.
The concert begins at 8 p.m., Wednesday, March 15, in Lotte
Lehmann Concert Hall. Also on the program: J.S.
Bach’s Orchestral Suite in C Major BWV 1066, Bedrich
Smetana’s The Moldau from Ma Vlast, Johannes
Brahms’s Hungarian Dances Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5, and
Peter Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave. Tickets are $12
general admission, $7 for students, and the best way to get them is
at the door on the night.