Spivey Hall Education Launches Young People’s Concerts; Hosts Honor Choir Workshops

Clayton State University’s Spivey Hall continues its 26th Season with the opening concerts in its Vocal, Organ and Strings Series in October.

The Vocal Series opens with celebrated Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená and pianist Malcolm Martineau (October 15) performing songs intimate and theatrical. For the first time, guitarists Eliot Fisk and Ángel Romero share the Spivey Hall stage for a special event (October 23), displaying their mastery in innovative transcriptions of popular Spanish music. Spivey’s Organist-in-Residence Alan Morrison launches this season’s Organ Series (October 29) with a program designed to showcase and celebrate the Hall’s magnificent 4,413-pipe organ Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ, custom-built by the internationally renowned Italian firm of  Fratelli Ruffatti. The String Series premieres with the Spivey Hall debut of Trio Settecento (October 30) in A French Soirée program featuring a wealth of lively and colorful works from the French baroque.

Spivey Hall’s Young People’s Concerts premieres its new season with five concerts in October, addressing core curriculum and Georgia Performance Standards and educating listeners through engaging musical performances. The month’s program offers a diverse range of choices intended to introduce younger audiences to various genres, including opera, bluegrass, the glass harp and choral music. Spivey Hall Education also presents two honor choir workshops in October, each culminating in a public performance.

Additionally, a free, general admission, no-tickets-required regional ensemble concert features two Auburn University Department of Music faculty, David Odom on clarinet and Jeremy Samolesky on piano (October 2).

Tickets for all of Spivey Hall’s Season 26 concerts are available online and by calling the Spivey Hall Box Office.

David Odom, clarinet

Jeremy Samolesky, piano

Sunday, October 2, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.

CSU’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts/Division of Music hosts two outstanding musicians from Auburn University’s Department of Music. In addition to serving as associate professors at Auburn, both David Odom and Jeremy Samolesky enjoy thriving solo and orchestral careers. Their program for Spivey includes Mozart’s exquisite A-major Clarinet Concerto, plus music by Charles Stanford and Max Reger.

Admission is free with no tickets required.

Magdalena Kožená, mezzo-soprano

Malcolm Martineau, piano

Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.

Pre-concert dinner at 5:45 p.m.

Pre-concert talk 6:30 p.m.

In a pairing of two major international talents, Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená joins pianist Malcolm Martineau in the first recital of Spivey Hall’s Vocal Series, featuring popular songs by Antonin Dvořák, Gabriel Fauré and Hugo Wolf and a rare performance of cabaret songs by Arnold Schoenberg, which with Three Songs of Ophelia from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” by Richard Strauss will highlight Kožená’s talents as a captivating singing actress. The Times (London) praised Kožená’s “mesmerizing voice, that magnetic personality…in whatever repertoire or language. She’s as versatile as she is ubiquitous.” The Guardian named Martineau “the number one pianist of choice for so many singers…guiding the songs unerringly and keeping sensuality and sensitivity in balance.”

Tickets are priced at $60 (with discounts for subscribers, groups, students and Georgia educators), and are available for purchase now. A pre-concert talk given by Clayton State University Music Professor Dr. Kurt-Alexander Zeller begins at 6:30 p.m. and is included in the ticket price.

Concert Program Notes providing detailed information about the music and the composers are available now at spivey.org. These online program notes enriched by short music samples give patrons the chance to hear what the notes are talking about.

A dinner prior to the performance is available for an additional fee of $40 per person. The dinner will be held at 5:45 p.m. in the Harry S. Downs Education Center; price includes entrée, beverage and dessert. The deadline for purchasing dinner tickets is noon on Monday, October 10, 2016. Advanced purchase through the box office is required; dinners may not be purchased the day of concert.

Eliot Fisk and Ángel Romero, guitar

Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.

World-renowned classical guitarists Ángel Romero and Eliot Fisk come together for one incredible performance, the first of Spivey Hall’s Season 26 special events. Spanish native Romero and American-born Fisk have forged individually successful careers in addition to their critically acclaimed collaborations. South Florida Classical Review praised Romero’s playing as “passionate yet finely nuanced, his tone crystal-clear, passages always thoughtfully phrased, whether slow or rapid-fire.” The New Yorker labelled Fisk “a remarkable musician…abundantly, mercurially alive.”

Their program, Viva Espaňa, features the duo’s new transcriptions of popular masterworks by Spanish composers including Joaquín Rodrigo, Isaac Albéniz and Federico Garcia Lorca and others. Each artist will also perform solo works for guitar, and both will introduce the program’s selections from the stage.

Tickets are priced at $40 (with discounts for subscribers, groups, students and Georgia educators), and are available for purchase now.

This performance is made possible in part through the generosity of Spivey Hall Friends Concert Sponsors George and Stephanie Shepherd.

Alan Morrison, organ

Saturday, October 29, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.

Spivey Hall’s Organist-in-Residence Alan Morrison is the first concert in Spivey’s 26th Season Organ Series, which this year celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ. Morrison is widely recognized as a premier concert organist, performing in prestigious organ venues across the United States and Canada, as well as in international festivals. He is a champion of twentieth- and twenty-first-century composers, personally introducing their works to audiences in recitals and concerts, and enjoys collaborating with vocalists and other instrumentalists in chamber programs.

Morrison holds the Haas Charitable Trust Chair in Organ Studies at Philadelphia’s prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, joined the faculty of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in 2006, and serves as College Organist at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.

New this season, Morrison also holds The McGehee Family Organist Residency at Spivey Hall, through the 2020-2021 season, created through major gifts from Spivey Hall Friends Shelley, Terry and Linda McGehee. Morrison’s October 29 recital is also made possible in part through the generosity of Spivey Hall Friends Concert Sponsors Drs. Lila and Lonnie Roberts.

Morrison’s program will include music by French composers Eugène Gigout, Camille Saint-Saëns and Joseph Bonnet, plus Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental Passacaglia, BWV 582, and transcriptions of works by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Claude Debussy.

Tickets are priced at $40 (with discounts for subscribers, groups, students and Georgia educators), and are available for purchase now.

At this concert, Spivey Hall proudly hosts the launch of Alan Morrison’s latest CD recording, Celebration: 25 Years of the Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ, recorded in Spivey Hall in February 2016 and released by ACA Digital Recording, Inc. The CD features Johann Sebastian Bach’s towering Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Fantasy in F minor, K. 608; Sigrid Karg-Elert’s Symphonic Chorale, “Jesu, meine Freude,” Op. 87 No. 2, plus works by Johann Bernhard Bach, Juan Bautista José Cabanilles, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Percy Whitlock and Horatio Parker.  Liner notes by music critic and Audio Video Club of Atlanta member Phil Muse include an interview with Alan Morrison.  The CelebrationCD will be on sale at the Spivey Hall Box Office, and Morrison will be available following his recital to greet audience members and autograph CDs.

Trio Settecento, baroque ensemble

Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.

Pre-concert talk at 2:00 p.m.

Rachel Barton Pine (baroque violin, viola d’amore), John Mark Rozendaal (viola da gamba, baroque cello) and David Schrader (harpsichord, positiv organ, fortepiano) are Trio Settecento, who for the past decade has been exploring the 18th-century repertoire on period instruments. The group was formed originally to record the complete violin sonatas of George Frideric Handel, and after the success of that initial endeavor decided to keep performing. Chicago Classical Review noted in performance, the members of the trio are “highly responsive to each other. Picking up fragments of a melody or adding a new rhythmic layer, they played with seamless ease.”

Their Spivey Hall debut program, A French Soirée, features an opening Divertissement woven together from short pieces by Jean-Baptiste Lully, François Couperin, and Marin Marais, plus trio sonatas by Jean-Féry Rebel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Jean Marie Leclair, and a dazzling solo piece for harpsichord by Rameau.

Tickets are priced at $50 (with discounts for subscribers, groups, students and Georgia educators), and are available for purchase now. A pre-concert talk given by the Trio Settecento musicians begins at 2:00 p.m. and is included in the ticket price.

This performance is made possible in part through the generosity of Spivey Hall Friends Concert Sponsors Mr. & Mrs. Nicolas I. Quintana.

SPIVEY HALL EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Spivey Hall Treble Honor Choir

Georgina Philippson, conductor

Saturday, October 1, 2016 at 5:00 p.m.

Spivey Hall High School Honor Choir

Norman Mackenzie, conductor

Saturday, October 22, 2016 at 5:00 p.m.

Spivey Hall’s Honor Workshops provide outstanding middle and high school singers and musicians and their teachers with some of the finest musical training in the nation. The challenging workshops culminate in a public performance; teachers may earn professional learning units by observing the rehearsals. Teachers are invited to contact Melanie Darby, Spivey Hall’s education manager for more details on the workshops.

Tickets for the concerts are priced at $5 and are available for purchase now.

Young People’s Concerts (YPC)

Spivey Hall’s Young People’s Concerts (YPC) is an integral part of its education program; the concerts are 45-50 minutes in length and designed for audience interaction. Educators and parents are asked to note carefully the performance times and recommended grade levels for each program. There will be study guides correlated to the curriculum (GPS and CCGPS) with a concentration on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics).  

While the concerts are intended for children and youth in pre-K to grade 12, Spivey Hall welcomes community members of all ages to the performances. Concerts cost just $2 in advance, $5 on the day of the concert, and are available for purchase now.  

Complete information on YPCs and Spivey Hall’s education program is available atspiveyhall.org/educational-programs/.

Georgia State University Singers

Joy Meade, conductor

Wednesday, October 12, 2016, at 11:15 a.m.

The Georgia State University Singers is the premier vocal ensemble at the university, conducted by Joy Meade. The Singers’ annual performances have included appearances before the Georgia Music Educators Association, American Choral Directors Association, and at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards. The choir has toured throughout much of the United States and six international tours with stops in France, Belgium, Italy, Yugoslavia, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Canada, and Great Britain.

Opera Carolina

The Tortoise and the Hare

Thursday, October 13, 2016, at 9:45 and 11:15 a.m.

Opera Xpress, Opera Carolina‘s educational touring company, provides delightful productions of children’s operas to help students understand and appreciate opera as an art form. The Tortoise and the Hare is based on the famous folktale, featuring music from some of Rossini’s comic masterpieces The Barber of Seville, Le Comte Ory and William Tell.

Brien Engel, Glass Harp

Tuesday, October 18, 2016 at 11.15 a.m.

Brien Engel is part of an exciting new community striving to revive and promote the enchanting art of glass music. His glass harp is comprised of goblets and snifters of various sizes, which he plays by carefully rubbing their rims with moistened fingers. His current instrument features 50 glasses, and is one of the largest in the world. Engel’s program explores musical instruments made from everyday materials, the history of glass and water-tuned music, and related concepts of physics and sound.

Shake Up Your Brain

Roger Day

Monday, October 24, 2016, at 9:45 a.m.

Award-winning performer and songwriter Roger Day‘s Shake Up Your Brain features songs from his fourth CD, Why Does Gray Matter? The show makes innovative use of “the brain” as a theme for every song – KidsHealth.org says it’s “smart, interactive music that exercises both mind and muscle. Literally.”

Classical Mountain Fiddles

Tuesday, October 25, 2016, at 11:15 a.m.

Classical Mountain Fiddles brings together the best of classical and bluegrass music. Tiffany Watson (violin and viola), Erica Ransbottom (cello and mandolin) and David Ellis (fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar) help students explore how Appalachian music and classical music are alike and how they differ.

About Spivey Hall

Now celebrating its 26th season, Spivey Hall is the South’s most acoustically superior recital hall, presenting the best in classical, jazz and world music. Located on the picturesque campus of Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, just fifteen miles southeast of Atlanta, the hall has been praised by artists, patrons and journalists alike.

This season, Spivey Hall celebrates the 25th anniversary of its magnificent 4,413-pipe Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ, custom-built in Italy by Fratelli Ruffatti, with special events and concerts.

An intimate venue with just 392 seats, Spivey Hall promotes for the concert-goer a personal connection with the artist both during and after the performance.  Spivey’s extraordinary acoustics and reputation for distinguished programming attract outstanding international musicians who regularly perform at the nation’s major concert venues such as Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. For more information, visitwww.spiveyhall.org.

Clayton State University’s Spivey Hall gratefully acknowledges the support of the Walter and Emilie Spivey Foundation and the Spivey Hall Friends.

Spivey Hall’s Season 26 is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA also receives support from its partner agency – theNational Endowment for the Arts.

About Clayton State University

A unit of the University System of Georgia, Clayton State University is an outstanding comprehensive metropolitan university located 15 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta. For more information, visitwww.clayton.edu.