Spring 2019 Schedule At A Glance

​

Spring 2019

Romain Pilon Jazz Trio
Thursday, January 31, 2019, 7:30 PM
Fine Arts Recital Hall

…without a doubt one of the most outstanding guitarists to have emerged in recent years. -  Bebop Spoken Here

Based in Paris, Romain Pilon is considered one of Europe’s top jazz guitar players. As a leader, he has recorded 4 critically acclaimed albums, with some of the world’s best musicians like Ben Wendel, Seamus Blake, Walter Smith III, and Matt Brewer. His ability to fit in every context, from mainstream to avant-garde, while preserving in own voice also makes him a very demanded sideman. Romain’s highlight performances have included tours in Spain, Portugal, Germany, and the US. He has played in many festivals worldwide such as Brosella Jazz Festival Eurojazz Festival, Recife Jazz Festival, Malta Jazz Festival, and the Kriol Jazz festival. Romain will be joined in concert by NY-based drummer Ronen Itzik and California Jazz Conservatory bassist Jeff Denson.

Full Bio HERE. Promotional image HERE.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication, Department of Music, and A-State Guitar Guild.

Aulos Baroque Ensemble
Tuesday, February 19, 2019, 7:30 PM
Fine Arts Recital Hall

The music is wonderful; the scholarship exemplary; the performances distinguished. – Fanfare

scintillating… virtuosic… authentic baroque performance at its best

The Aulos Ensemble was formed in 1973 by five Juilliard graduates and quickly rose to the forefront of a movement that was to capture the imagination of the American listening public. In now its 4th decade, Aulos continues to explore new projects and develop outlets for its music-making. The ensemble consists of Christopher Krueger (flauto traverso and recorder) Marc Schachman (baroque oboe) Linda Quan (baroque violin) Myron Lutzke (baroque cello) and Arthur Haas (harpsichord). Their A-State performance is titled, A Tale of Two Cities and will include works by Henry Purcell, George Frideric Handel, François Couperin, and Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Full Bio HERE. Promotional image HERE.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication and Department of Music.

Greenfield Lecture: Scott Hartley, author
Thursday, February 28, 2019, 6:30 PM
Humanities and Social Sciences 1041

…a masterful job going beyond the headlines to explain why the future needs engineers as much as it does philosophers, and why the two need each other. — Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group

Scott Hartley, author of The Fuzzy and the Techie, will present the Greenfield Lecture on February 28 at 6:30 pm in HSS 1041.  The Greenfield Lecture is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Communication in partnership with the A-State Faculty Center.  In his new book, Hartley explores the intersections of the Liberal Arts and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math subjects) and asserts that the Liberal Arts brings the human perspective to all aspects of our technological world and that the future success of the economy is dependent on both the fuzzy and the techie.  Hartley, a venture capitalist and startup advisor, has been an investment partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures and a partner at Metamorphic Ventures in New York.  Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, he served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the White House, and worked at Google, Facebook, and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Full Bio HERE. Promotional image HERE.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication in partnership with A-State Faculty Center.

Classical Guitarist Jordan Dodson and Composer Jason Eckardt
Monday, March 11, 2019, 7:30 PM
Fine Arts Recital Hall

…one of the top young guitarists of his generation. - Performance Today (Dodson)

brilliant... dazzling… emotionally resonating – New York Times, BBC, Los Angeles Times (Eckardt)

An extraordinary, one-of-a-kind performer, Jordan Dodson is winner of Astral's 2013 National Auditions. He is an active soloist and chamber musician based in New York and Philadelphia. He has also received awards from the 2011 Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition, the 2010 Indiana International Guitar Competition, and the 2008 American String Teachers Association Competition. Recent performances have taken him across the U.S. and abroad to music festivals as the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Festival Daniou. An advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Dodson has commissioned and premiered dozens of pieces internationally. He performs in several New York City chamber ensembles including Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and Contemporaneous. Included on the concert will be two works by guest composer Jason Eckardt. Eckardt’s music has been influenced by his interests in perceptual complexity, the physical and psychological dimensions of performance, political activism, and self-organizing processes in the natural world. He teaches composition at City University of New York’s Graduate Center and Brooklyn College and lives in the Catskill Mountains.

Dodson: Full Bio HERE. Promotional image HERE.
Eckardt: Full Bio HERE. Promotional image HERE.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication, Department of Music, and A-State Guitar Guild.

The Rhythm Method, String Quartet
Tuesday, March 26, 2019, 7:30 PM (in residency March 25-27)
Fine Arts Recital Hall

The American avant-garde has a long and sometimes painfully precious tradition of art strictly for art’s sake – and this all-female quartet seem hell-bent on changing that. - New York Music Daily

You have never heard a string quartet like this one! With “stunning displays of fearsome extended technique and fearless programming” (New York Music Daily) and “uncompromising and unreserved...intense, and sensuously gestural” performances (The Examiner). The Rhythm Method strives to reimagine the string quartet in a contemporary, feminist context. The four performer-composers of The Rhythm Method continually expand their sonic and expressive palette through the use of graphic notation, vocalization, improvisation, and performance. The Rhythm Method recently completed residencies at the Zurich University for Art and Music, and Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts, and has performed internationally in France, Austria, and Switzerland. This season marks the official kickoff of the quartet’s Hidden Mothers Project, an initiative highlighting works by historical women composers. It will also bring the second installment of Broad Statements, a celebration of creative music-making by women in a wide array of artistic styles.

Full Bio HERE. Promotional image HERE.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication, Department of Music, and A-State Music Outreach Program.

Neave Trio
Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 7:30 PM
Riceland Hall, Fowler Center

Their unanimity, communication, variety of touch, and expressive sensibility rate first tier.  – The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Since forming in 2010, Neave Trio has earned enormous praise for its engaging, cutting-¬edge performances. WQXR explains, "'Neave' is actually a Gaelic name meaning 'bright' and 'radiant', both of which certainly apply to this trio's music making." The Boston Musical Intelligencer included Neave in its “Best of 2014” and “Best of 2016” roundups, writing, “it is inconceivable that they will not soon be among the busiest chamber ensembles going,” and “their unanimity, communication, variety of touch, and expressive sensibility rate first tier.” Neave has performed at many esteemed concert series and at festivals worldwide, including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk and Norwich Chamber Music Series, and the Samoylov and Rimsky Korsakow Museums' Chamber Music Series in St. Petersburg. The trio has also appeared frequently as soloists for Beethoven's Triple Concerto with orchestras across the country and held residency positions at Brown University, ArtsAhimsa Chamber Music Festival, San Diego State University as the first ever Fisch/Axelrod Trio‑in‑Residence, and the Banff Centre (Canada), among many other institutions. In the fall of 2017, the Trio joined the faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College as an Alumni Artists, Faculty Ensemble‑in‑Residence.

Full Bio HERE. Promotional image HERE.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication, Department of Music, and AState Music Outreach Program.

Delta Symposium: Simon Bronner
Deciding Whether to Relocate: The Delta as Home and Hell for Bluesinger Eugene Powell.
Friday, April 12, 2019, 1:00 PM
Carl R. Reng Student Union, Mockingbird Room

Simon J. Bronner is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of American Studies and Folklore at the Pennsylvania State University, and in 2018-2019 the Maxwell C. Weiner Visiting Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He has also taught folklore and cultural history at Harvard University, Dickinson College, and University of California-Davis. He is the author and editor of over forty books on folklore, ethnology, and cultural history, including Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife Studies (2018), Folklore: The Basics (2017), and Explaining Traditions: Folk Behavior in Modern Culture (2011). In 2015, the American Folklore Society presented him with the Kenneth Goldstein Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Academic Leadership and in 2017, the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award for his work on youth culture.

Full Bio HERE. Promotional image HERE.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication and Delta Symposium.