Final Recital at USU's Wassermann Festival

The final offering at the 2008 Wassermann Festival at Utah State University features pianist Robert McDonald and members of the USU-based Fry Street Quartet. A program with work by Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms is planned.

The closing recital is Friday, March 28, at USU’s Performance Hall (approximately 1090 E. 675 North). Performance time is 8 p.m.

Reserved seating tickets are available by calling (435) 754-5741. Admission is $25. Tickets are also available at the door the night of performance.

The evening opens with a selection by the Fry Street Quartet, Utah State University’s professional string quartet in residence. The quartet is based in the Department of Music and the Caine School of the Arts in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Its members include William Fedkenheuer (violin), Rebecca McFaul (violin), Russell Fallstad (viola) and Ann Francis (cello). The quartet opens with Quartet in D major, Op. 18, No. 3 by Beethoven.

McDonald is in the spotlight for the second selection, Fantasie in C major, Op. 17 by Robert Schumann.

Following intermission, McDonald and the Fry Street Quartet combine for Quintet for Piano and Strings in F minor, Op. 34 by Johannes Brahms.

McDonald is an American pianist who has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Far East as both a solo recitalist and as a recital partner to Isaac Stern, Midori and many others. He has appeared with multiple orchestras, including the San Francisco, Baltimore and Milwaukee symphonies. Internationally, he has appeared with the Orquesta Sinfonica, Nacional in Costa Rica and with the Orchestra Sinfonica Haydn de Bolzano e Trento in Italy.

McDonald is a member of the piano faculties at both the Juillard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. For the past 26 summers he has directed the keyboard program at the Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico.

An award-winning pianist, McDonald won the Gold Medal at the Busoni International Competition in Italy, and the top prize at both the William Kapell International Competition and the Washington International Competition. He is the recipient of the National Federal of Music Clubs Artist Award and a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

The Fry Street Quartet and its members perform throughout the year in addition to teaching responsibilities at USU. Quartet members are an integral part of the music department’s string program. Founded in Chicago in 1997 under the mentorship of Marc Johnson, cellist of the renowned Vermeer Quartet, the Fry Street Quartet has received rave reviews as prizewinners at the Yellow Springs Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition. A “New York Times” review hailed the quartet’s program as “a triumph of ensemble playing.”

For information about the Wassermann Festival at USU, visit the Web site or call (435) 754-5741.

Student Pianist to Present Benefit Concert for the Wassermann Festival

An award-winning Utah State University piano student is featured in a special benefit concert offered by the 2008 Wassermann Festival. Brandon Lee, a junior piano performance major, is the featured performer at the March 26 recital. The performance begins at 7 p.m. at the USU Performance Hall (approximately 1090 E. 675 North).

Admission is free but donations in support of the Wassermann Festival will be accepted.

Lee is a 21-year-old pianist who resides in Logan and has studied for piano for 16 years. In 1998, Lee and his family moved from Hawaii so he could study with Gary Amano at USU. He is now a scholarship recipient at USU, where he studies piano performance and maintains a 3.97 grade point average.

His program includes selections by Bach, Haydn, Chopin and Samuel Barber. He opens with Mephisto Waltz No. 1 by Franz Liszt and closes with Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 by Tchaikovsky.

Lee has won first place in more than 30 state, regional and national competitions. He has soloed with the Utah Symphony three times and with other orchestras in Colorado and California. He is a national finalist in the upcoming MTNA Steinway Young Artist Piano Competition, where the prize is a Steinway Model M grand piano valued at $49,000.

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Contact: Dennis Hirst (435) 797-3257
Writer: Patrick Williams (435) 797-1354