Opus Two Duo

Recital:
Sunday, March 5  2:00 pm

Masterclass:
Sunday, March 5  5:00 pm
Riceland Hall, Fowler Center

Opus Two has been internationally recognized for its “divine phrases, impelling rhythm, elastic ensemble and stunning sounds,” as well as its commitment to expanding the violin-piano duo repertoire. Winners of the U. S. Information Agency’s Artistic Ambassador Auditions, violinist William Terwilliger and pianist Andrew Cooperstock have performed across six continents, including engagements at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, St. John’s Smith Square (London), Wagner Hall (Riga), American Church in Paris, U.S. Embassy Canberra, and on Hong Kong’s Hell Hot! New Music Series, as well as on NPR, Radio France, and the BBC. The duo has also presented master classes worldwide from Juilliard to the China Central Conservatory, and they have served on the faculties of the Saarburg (Germany) International Music Festival and School and the International Concerto Festival (Czech Republic). Champions of American music, Opus Two has recorded a critically acclaimed series of single-composer discs dedicated to the music of Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Paul Schoenfield, Lowell Liebermann, and Leonard Bernstein. They will celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday in 2020 with multiple performances including an appearance at Broadway’s renowned 54 Below nightclub.

Quapaw Quartet

March 7, 2023

4:00 PM - Masterclass, Riceland Hall, Fowler Center
7:30 PM - Guest Artist Recital, Riceland Hall, Fowler Center

Frisson Winds

Anna Urrey, flute
Tom Gallant, oboe
Bixby Kennedy, clarinet
Rémy Taghavi, bassoon
March 13, 2023

12:00 PM - Masterclass, TBD, Fine Arts Center
7:30 PM - Guest Artist Recital, Riceland Hall, Fowler Center

Frisson Winds features the brilliant wind musicians of the explosive group Frisson.  These virtuoso wind players perform a wide variety of music for winds of various combinations as well as wonderful programs of music for piano and winds.  Concerts feature trios, quartets and quintets by such composers as Beethoven, Mozart, Francaix, Poulenc, William Grant Still, Valerie Coleman, Gershwin, Paquito d’Rivera and many more. 

Frisson features the best and brightest of classical music's stars and the group showcases emerging young artists as well as seasoned professionals.  In just a few seasons the group has skyrocketed to become one of the leading classical music groups in the field.  The members of Frisson all have impressive biographies and many have performed at such prestigious venues as the Verbier Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Marlboro Festival, and Ravinia Festivals as well as in New York City at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall.  

Limmie Pulliam, tenor & Mark Markham, piano

Thursday, March 16  7:30 pm
Riceland Hall, Fowler Center

Rising tenor Limmie Pulliam continues to thrill audiences with his captivating stage presence and his “stentorian, yet beautiful,” sound.  Pulliam was recently praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for his "full-throated vocal power, and intimate lyricism,,' with his recent debut at Livermore Valley Opera in Verdi's Otello.

On December 17th, 2022, Pulliam made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Radamès in Aida, which also served as his role debut. He later performs Radamès with Tulsa Opera for their 75th anniversary gala concert. Elsewhere during the season, he returns to the Cleveland Orchestra for his first performances as Dick Johnson in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. In concert, he debuts with the San Diego Symphony singing Verdi’s Requiem and makes his Carnegie Hall debut performing “The Ordering of Moses” in collaboration with his alma mater, The Oberlin Conservatory. He also joins pianist Mark Markham for a series of recitals entitled "Make Them Hear You: A Spiritual Journey" and will also be featured on “operatic greatest hits” concerts with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra and Delta Symphony. ​

The 2021/22 season has been highlighted by his highly-anticipated L..A. Opera debut as Manrico in Verdi's Il Trovatore, where he was lauded by the Los Angeles Times for his "healthy, focused, ringing tenor."  He followed that with a successful role debut as Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana with Vashon Opera.  Upcoming performances include his company debut with Livermore Valley Opera in the title role of Verdi's Otello,  his company debut in Fort Worth Opera's A Night of Black Excellence Concert, and his rescheduled appearance with The Memphis Symphony Orchestra as the tenor soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He is set to take the stage again as Verdi's Otello in his highly-anticipated debut with The Cleveland Orchestra. 

In the 2020/21 COVID-affected season, Mr. Pulliam's original engagements included his role debut as Florestan in Fidelio with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (canceled). During the shortened 2020/19 season, he appeared with the Springfield Regional Opera for their 40th Anniversary Gala (performed) and made his debut with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (performed) for a gala concert. He was a featured performer for the 6th Annual Viennese Opera Ball in New York and appeared in a recital in Charlotte, NC, and at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, OH.  Additionally, he was slated to join the Newport Music Festival during the summer for a concert of Verdi selections (canceled).

Counted among his appearances in the 2018-19 season were debuts with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in his native Missouri in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, the world premiere of Nicholas White’s Immortality with the Concord Chorale in celebration of their 50th season, and a company debut as Otello in Maryland Opera’s Verdi in the Valley Gala. Most recently, Mr. Pulliam joined the Canadian Opera Company covering the title role for their production of Verdi’s Otello.

The 2017-18 season included several debuts beginning with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in Verdi's Messa da Requiem and his company debut with Springfield Regional Opera as the title character in Verdi's Otello. He also made a  return appearance with Vashon Opera, where he was featured in a sold-out Limmie Pulliam & Friends concert.

The 2016-17 season saw his debuts as a guest artist with Arkansas' Delta Symphony Orchestra and appearances as one of The 3 Holiday Tenors with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra. His season also included an acclaimed role and house debut as Canio in I Pagliacci with Vashon Opera.  He appeared as a special guest at The National Opera Association’s 2016 convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, to honor Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and 2015 National Medal of Arts honoree and legendary tenor George Shirley. The highlight of his season was his festival debut with the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice in his first foray as the title character in Verdi’s masterpiece, Otello. 

Mr. Pulliam's other recent engagements include performances with The Concord Chorale as tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem Mass and tenor soloist in Stainer’s Resurrection with New Covenant United Methodist Church in The Villages, Florida. Mr. Pulliam has been featured in numerous appearances with the internationally renowned chorale Gloriae Dei Cantores as the tenor soloist (Ahab/Obadiah) in an original German-language presentation of Mendelssohn’s Elijah as well as in concerts featuring Intimations of Immortality and Ode For St. Cecelia by Gerald Finzi.  He has also presented concerts featuring Negro Spirituals with The Concord Chorale. He appeared as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Forum Sinfonia Orchestra of Finland and soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the San Angelo Symphony.  Mr. Pulliam was also a featured soloist on The American Spiritual Ensemble. 

The Missouri native trained with the late renowned, pedagogue Richard Miller.  He is also a former participant in the young artist programs of Cleveland Opera, Opera Delaware and Opera Memphis. He was the 2012 Artist Division Winner of the National Opera Association's Vocal Competition and, in 2013, was a winner in the 3rd Annual Concorso Internazionale di Canto della Fondazione Marcello Giordano in Catania, Sicily. 

Born in Pensacola, Florida, Mr. Markham made his debut in 1980 as soloist with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra and in the same year was invited by the renowned Boris Goldovsky to coach opera at the Oglebay Institute. His teachers at the time, Robert and Trudie Sherwood, were supportive of all his musical endeavors from solo repertoire, vocal accompanying, and chamber music to Broadway and jazz. During the next ten years as a student at the Peabody Conservatory, where he received the BM, MM and DMA degrees in piano performance, this same support for the diversity of his musical gifts came from Ann Schein, a pupil of Mieczyslaw Munz and the great Artur Rubinstein. While under her tutelage he won several competitions including the Munz Competition and the First Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize at the 1988 Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition in New York City. While still a student at the conservatory Mr. Markham toured with soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, a collaboration that resulted in critically acclaimed recordings of works by Messiaen, Carter, Dallapiccola, Schuller, and Wuorinen. In addition, he has toured the US, Europe, and Asia with countertenor Derek Lee Ragin and also performed with Gordon Hawkins, Theodora Hanslowe, Christine Brewer, Isabel Leonard, Limmie Pulliam, Eric Owens, Lise Davidsen, Leah Crocetto, Elizabeth DeShong, J’Nai Bridges and Vinson Cole. In 2017 he created the non-profit foundation Singing in Sicily, an intensive summer training program for young talented singers from around the world.

Starting in 1995 for twenty seasons, Mr. Markham was the recital partner of Jessye Norman, giving nearly 300 performances in thirty countries, including recitals in Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Philharmonie in Berlin, La Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Salzburg Festival, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece, the Baalbek Festival at the Temple of Bacchus in Lebanon, and at the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize presentation to President Jimmy Carter in Oslo.

Much appreciated by the public for his improvisational skills, Mr. Markham performed at the Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany, where he collaborated with Sir Peter Ustinov for a live television broadcast throughout the country. His gift for jazz has been recognized in the Sacred Ellington, a program created by Ms. Norman in which he served as pianist and musical director, which toured Europe, the Middle East and finished in 2009 with a performance at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City. His recording with Jessye Norman of “Roots: My Life, My Song” was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Mr Markham is a former faculty member of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, the Norfolk Festival of Yale University and the Britten-Pears School of the Aldeburgh Festival in England. He has given master classes throughout the US, Europe and Asia and has been a guest lecturer for The Johns Hopkins University and the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

Dr. James Giles, Piano Program Coordinator, Northwestern University

11:00 AM - Masterclass, Recital Hall, Fine Arts Center
5:00 PM - Guest Artist Recital, Riceland Hall, Fowler Center

James Giles regularly performs in important musical centers in America, Europe, and Asia. In 2019 he toured in Denmark and performed recitals in Toronto, Paris, Naples, Budapest, and Manchester, England. US dates included recitals in Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa, Des Moines, Bloomington, IN, and Chicago. As a chamber musician he appeared at the Tucson Chamber Music Festival and the Dempster Street Promusica. During 2022-23 he performs with the Peoria Symphony (Beethoven Fourth), Northwestern University Wind Ensemble (Messiaen Oiseaux Exotiques), and at the American Liszt Society conference. He also plays recitals in North Carolina, Arkansas, and Taiwan.

In an eclectic repertoire encompassing the solo and chamber music literatures, Giles is equally at home in the standard repertoire as in the music of our time. He has commissioned and premiered works by William Bolcom, C. Curtis-Smith, Stephen Hough, Low-ell Liebermann, Ned Rorem, Augusta Read Thomas, Earl Wild, and James Wintle. Most of these new works are featured on Giles’s Albany Records release entitled “American Virtuoso.” His recording of solo works by Schumann and Prokofiev is available on England’s Master Musicians label. He recorded John Harbison’s Horn Trio with the Chicago Chamber Musicians and recently released a recording with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic.

His Paris recital at the Salle Cortot in was hailed as “a true revelation, due equally to the pianist’s artistry as to his choice of program.” After a recital at the Sibelius Academy, the critic for Helsinki’s main newspaper wrote that “Giles is a technically polished, elegant pianist.” And a London critic called his Wigmore Hall recital “one of the most sheerly in-spired piano recitals I can remember hearing for some time” and added that “with a riveting intelligence given to everything he played, it was the kind of recital you never real-ly forget.”

He has performed with New York’s Jupiter Symphony (Alkan and Czerny); the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra in Queen Elizabeth Hall (Mozart and Beethoven); the Kharkiv Philharmonic in Ukraine (Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff); and with the Opera Orchestra of New York in Alice Tully Hall (Chopin). After his Tully Hall solo recital debut, critic Harris Goldsmith wrote: “Giles has a truly distinctive interpretive persona. This was beautiful pianism – direct and unmannered.” Other tours have included concerts in the Shanghai International Piano Festival; St. Petersburg’s White Nights New Music Festival, Warsaw’s Chopin Academy of Music; Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Series, Salt Lake City’s Assembly Hall Concert Series, and in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Musikhalle in Hamburg, and the Purcell Room at London’s South Bank Centre. He has given live recitals over the public radio stations of New York, Bos-ton, Chicago, and Indianapolis. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with members of the National and Chicago Symphonies and with members of the Escher, Pacifi-ca, Cassatt, Chicago, Ying, Chester, St. Lawrence, Essex, Lincoln, and Miami Quartets, as well as singers Aprile Millo and Anthony Dean Griffey.

A native of North Carolina, Dr. Giles studied with Byron Janis at the Manhattan School of Music, Jerome Lowenthal at the Juilliard School, Nelita True at the Eastman School of Music, and Robert Shannon at Oberlin College. He received early career assistance from the Clarisse B. Kampel Foundation and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Italy with the legendary pianist Lazar Berman.

The pianist was the recipient of a fellowship grant and the Christel Award from the American Pianists Association. He won first prizes at the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, and the Music Teachers National Association Competition. As a student he was awarded the prestigious William Petschek Scholarship at the Juilliard School and the Arthur Dann Award at the Oberlin College Conservatory. He wrote for Piano and Keyboard magazine and has presented lecture-recitals at the national conventions of the Music Teachers National Association, the College Music Society, and Pi Kappa Lambda. He regularly serves on competition jury panels and has been conference artist for many state music teachers associations.

Dr. Giles is coordinator of the piano program and director of music performance graduate studies at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and during the summers is director of the piano program at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival. He gives master classes and lectures at schools nationwide, including Juilliard, Manhattan, Eastman, Oberlin, Indiana, Yale, New England and has taught during the summers at the Gijon Piano Festival, Obidos Master Classes, Artcial Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Bowdoin, Brevard, Art of the Piano, Colburn, Interlochen, ARIA, Pianofest in the Hamp-tons, and the Schlern Festival in Italy. His classes internationally have occurred throughout China as well as at Seoul National University, Hanyang University (Seoul), Ewha Woman’s University (Seoul), the Royal Danish Academy of Music (Copenhagen), the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), the Chopin Academy (Warsaw), the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester) and the Royal College of Music (London).

Dr. Fred A. Bonner, Executive Director and Chief Scientist of the Minority Achievement, Creativity, and High-Ability Center

"Inclusive Excellence: Belonging in the Arkansas State University Context"

April 19, 2023
Student Auditorium, Reng Student Union

Dr. Fred A. Bonner, II is Professor and Endowed Chair in Educational Leadership and Counseling and Founding Executive Director and Chief Scientist of the Minority Achievement, Creativity and High-Ability (MACH-III) Center at Prairie View A&M University.  He is formerly the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University and an esteemed expert in the field of diversity in education. Prior to joining Rutgers, he was Professor of Higher Education Administration and Dean of Faculties at Texas A&M University-College Station. He earned a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of North Texas, an M.S. Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Baylor University, and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration & College Teaching from the University of Arkansas.  Bonner has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Association for Higher Education Black Caucus Dissertation Award and the Educational Leadership, Counseling and Foundation’s Dissertation of the Year Award from the University of Arkansas College of Education.  His work has been featured nationally and internationally. He is the author of the recently released book, Building on Resilience: Models and Frameworks of Black Male Success Across the P-20 Pipeline.