Final Performance of 2013 Summer Chamber Music Festival Features Shostakovich, Liebermann, Beach

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The fifth annual KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival will conclude its season with a final concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 20. The performance will feature works by Liebermann and Shostakovich 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 include a variety of chamber music using diverse instrumental groups from many musical eras.

"Although in diverse styles, this is our first program ever of all twentieth-century music and our first program with a singer," said Gates.

The concert will feature faculty members Gates (cello), Ronda Mains (flute), Johan Botes (piano) and Paulo Eskitch (violin) and guest artists Louis Lynch (cello), Allyson Eskitch (piano) and Meray Boustani (soprano) performing Suite of Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok, Op. 127 and Piano Trio No. 2, in E minor, Op. 67 by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), Trio No. 1 for Flute, Cello, and Piano, Op. 83 by Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961) and Two Songs for Violin, Cello, Piano, and Soprano by Amy Beach (1867-1944).

"The concert will open with some lovely songs by Dmitri Shostakovich, written for soprano, violin, cello and piano," said Gates. "Following this will be a good-natured and virtuosic trio for flute, cello and piano written by the young American composer Lowell Liebermann. After intermission will be another set of songs, this time by the early-twentieth-century American composer Amy Beach, again for soprano and piano trio. The concert will close with the well-known Trio in E minor by Shostakovich, which runs a gamut of moods, from eerie solo harmonics in the cello at the start, through ecstasy and despair, to a quiet ending."

Originally from Kansas, Allyson Eskitch has participated in several chamber music festivals and performed both as a soloist and collaborative artist all over the United States. Throughout her career, she has maintained an active studio, teaching students of all ages and skill levels. She currently resides in Tulsa, Okla, where she teaches piano at the University of Tulsa and at Barthelmes Conservatory. She is a founding member of Trio Aleszky, which includes her husband, Paulo Eskitch and Lynch.

In addition to performing with Trio Aleszky, Lynch has spent many years as a professional cellist, performing with the orchestras of Milwaukee, Kansas City and New Jersey.  He has also served as assistant principal cellist with the Tulsa Philharmonic and as a member of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. He has owned the Tulsa Violin Shop since 1996.

Meray Boustani's operatic roles include A Lady with a Cake Box in Dominick Argento's Postcard from Morocco, Suzel in L'Amico Fritz, Despina in Così fan tutte, Belinda in Dido and Æneas, Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music, Baby Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen, and Page Boy in Rigoletto. She has performed with Tulsa Opera, the University of Arizona Opera, the Tucson Masterworks Chorale, the Tucson Community Chorus, The Chorus of Communities and Light Opera Oklahoma, as well as on several feature radio broadcasts. She is also the winner of many international singing competitions.

The KUAF/Fulbright Chamber Music Festival 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.

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.