Bonus Wassermann Festival Concert Spotlights Wind Quintet and USU Alum

Continuing the tradition of bringing the finest musicians of note to Utah State University and northern Utah, the Wassermann Festival adds a bonus concert this season as it diversifies its offerings.

The festival, currently held every other year, brings piano talent of the first rank to the USU campus for concerts and master classes. The festival is next slated for 2016 but its director, Dennis Hirst, has added a one-night-only concert this year, and it promises to be a concert that expands the bounds of the festival. The evening includes a wind quintet and a guest pianist.

Windscape, a woodwind quintet with members drawn from the top ranks of East Coast musicians, will be joined by USU alum and pianist Adam Nielsen in a concert Friday, Feb. 20. The 7:30 p.m. performance is at the Caine Performance Hall on USU’s Logan campus. Tickets are available in person at USU’s Caine College of the Arts box office in the Chase Fine Arts Center and through the college’s Production Services website by following the “Box Office” tab or call (435) 797-8022.

Hirst, who personally negotiated the concert, said he is eager to share the evening with Wassermann Festival devotees and beyond.

“The concert is exciting because we get to hear a world-class wind quintet in a live performance, and those are relatively rare,” Hirst said. “This is a true treat. Windscape is an extraordinary ensemble, and I look forward to experiencing with the audience its unique musical colors. And in that performance space — the Caine Performance Hall — wow, it’s the kind of thing that works beautifully.”

Windscape was formed in 1994 by five eminent woodwind soloists, including Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Randall Ellis, oboe; Alan R. Kay, clarinet; Frank Morelli, bassoon; and David Jolley, horn. As artists-in-residence at the Manhattan School of Music, the quintet members are master teachers. O’Connor is a current artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the 1995 Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble and is the flute soloist of the world-renowned Bach Aria Group. Ellis is the principal oboist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Kay is co-principal clarinetist and a former artistic director of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and serves as principal clarinet of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. As a soloist, hornist Jolly recently gave the world premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto for Horn with the Rochester Philharmonic and the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Morelli holds the distinction of being the first bassoonist to be awarded a doctorate by The Juilliard School. He is principal bassoonist of Orpheus and recently retired as principal bassoon of the New York City Opera Orchestra.

All members of Windscape fill faculty positions at top music schools, including Juilliard, Yale, the Manhattan School of Music, the North Carolina School of the Arts and more.

Nielsen, the evening’s pianist, is currently a coach, assistant conductor and undergraduate music advisor for the Marcus Institute of Vocal Arts at the Juilliard School. His performances have been praised by many, including the New York Times which said his program was “deftly and sensitively played.” He is a graduate of USU, the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University. He last performed in Logan at USU’s “All Steinway Celebration.”

Nielsen will join Windscape for the second half of the Logan program for a transcription of Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 completed by Jolley, Windscape’s hornist. The transcription is the work that instigated the Wassermann concert after a discussion between Morelli, Windscape’s bassoonist, and Hirst, when the pair collaborated for several invited recitals in China in fall 2014. Following a concert in Beijing, Hirst asked Morelli if the quintet frequently performed works with a pianist, and the Dvorak transcription came up. The work is well-known in its original version (piano and four string players).

“This is a beautiful piece, and David Jolley has created a remarkable transcription of the work for wind quintet and piano,” Hirst said. “The piano remains true to the original, and the four string parts are distributed between the five woodwind players.”

The work provides a rare treat for the Wassermann audience because Windscape is the only group to perform this transcription.

The first half of the Logan concert features Windscape in four selections, including Gyorgy Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet, a contemporary work, two works by Ravel and Manuel de Falla’s Three Dances from El Sombrero de Tres Picos.

“The program reflects the personality of what Windscape is,” Hirst said. “It has been described as an ‘Unquintet’ and the group defines its own genre of performance, where the remarkable skill of the individual is important as the members merge to form the ensemble.”

International critics agree. The Press of New Zealand wrote … “The ideal wind quintet in which each player was also a rewarding soloist, with beautiful tone, impeccable phrasing and sure articulation.”

In addition to the public concert, Windscape and Nielsen will provide master class opportunities for USU’s music students.

Tickets for the special Wassermann Festival concert are $24 for adults, $20 for USU faculty/staff and $8 for students (ages 8 and older). For out-of-town patrons, USU’s University Inn and Conference Center offers a special rate for accommodations. See the Wassermann Festival website for details and click the “accommodations” tab. Availability is limited.

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Contact: Dennis Hirst, 435-797-3257, dennis.hirst@usu.edu

Writer: Patrick Williams, 435-797-1354, patrick.williams@usu.edu