Guest Violinist, Violist Featured in KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The fifth annual KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival continues its season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 23, with the second of six concerts. The performance will feature works by Mozart and Brahms and will be held in the Fine Arts Building’s Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. A reception will follow.

 Music professors Stephen Gates and Er-Gene Kahng have been organizing the festival in collaboration with KUAF and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences since 2009. Performances will include a variety of chamber music using diverse instrumental groups from many musical eras.

The second concert will feature faculty members Kahng (violin), Gates (cello) and Paulo Eskitch (viola) and guest artists Linda Andersen (violin) and Molly Sharp (viola). The five musicians will play “String Quintet in G minor, KV 516” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and “String Quintet no. 2 in G Major, op. 111” by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).

“The Mozart Quintet is one of Mozart's best-loved chamber music works, and comes from a set of six quintets with two violas,” said Gates. “The Brahms Quintet is one of two quintets he wrote for the same combination - two violins, two violas, and cello - and is a worthy successor to the Mozart. Both are delightful compositions, although in very different styles.”

Andersen teaches violin and viola in Mt. Lebanon, Penn. She has played with the South Carolina Chamber Orchestra, the Columbia Pops Orchestra, the Columbia Opera and Ballet Company, the Conductor’s Institute Orchestra, the Amadeus String Quartet and others.

Sharp is a Fayetteville native who now lives in Richmond, Va., where she serves as principal violist for the Richmond Symphony. She has also played with the Nashville Symphony, Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra and Sante Fe Symphony.

The six-week series will continue with concerts every Thursday at 7:30 p.m. until June 20. The May 23, May 30, June 6 and June 20 concerts will be in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. The June 13 concert will be held in the parish hall of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville.

Performances are free and open to the public thanks to support from the university, Fulbright College and private donors. Seats may be reserved in advance through Fulbright College.

Free parking is available in the Stadium Drive Parking Facility, where parking is free after 5 p.m. Entrance to the parking facility is on Stadium Drive, and the facility’s elevator will take patrons to street level directly across from the Fine Arts Center. Musical previews and other details for each concert are available on the KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival website.

Contributions for the KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival may be made online or by contacting the Fulbright College development office at 479.575.3712 or Fulbright@uark.edu.Musical previews and other details for each concert are available on the KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival website.