The traditional chamber music repertoire will
be complemented with an infusion of jazz at the Sunflower Music Festival set
for June 8 to 16 at White Concert Hall on the Washburn University campus. All
concerts are free and open to the public.
Trumpet player Sean Jones will be the featured performer at the first jazz
concert included in the 25-year run of the Festival. A member of the Lincoln
Center Jazz Orchestra, Jones is on the music faculty at Duquesne University,
Pittsburgh, Pa., and issued a sixth album, “No Need for Words,” in 2011.
The legacy of the event will continue to be reinforced in the eight other
concerts which will be performed by nationally recognized chamber musicians and
chamber music students.
The 2012 schedule is:
Friday, June 8, 7:30 p.m., orchestra concert
· Overture to “Pygmalion” – Jean Phillipe Rameau
· “Dardanus”: Suite – Rameau
· Concerto for Piano No. 1 in D minor BVW 1052 – Johann Sebastian Bach (David
Allen Wehr, piano)
· Symphony No. 1 Opus 21 in C Major – Ludwig van Beethoven
Saturday, June 9, 7:30 p.m., chamber music concert
· String Quintet for Two Violins, Two Violas and Cello - Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart
· Serenade for Two Violins and Violas Opus 12 – Zoltan Kodaly
· String Quintet in C major, D. 956 Opus 163 (posthumous) – Franz Schubert
Sunday, June 10, 3 p.m., concert by Blanche Bryden Institute high school
students; 7:30 p.m., Blanche Bryden Institute college students
Monday, June 11, 7:30 p.m., Atrium Quartet concert
Tuesday, June 12, 7:30 p.m., chamber music concert
· Nonet for Strings and Winds in 3 flat, Opus 38 (1949) – Louise Farrenc
· Piano Trio #1 in B Opus 8 – Johannes Brahms
Wednesday, June 13, 7:30 p.m., orchestra
· Mother Goose Suite – Maurice Ravel
· Sonata for Viola and Orchestra Opus 147 – Dimitri Shostakovich (Roger Myers,
soloist)
· Symphony #4 Deliciae Basilienses – Arthur Honegger
Thursday, June 14: jazz concert, featuring Sean Jones
Friday, June 15, 7:30 p.m., chamber music concert
· Contrasts, for Violin, Clarinet and Piano, SZ #111, BB##116 – Bela Bartok
· Sextet for Piano and Woodwinds Opus 100 – Francis Poulenc
· Piano Quintet #2 in A major, Opus 81, B 155 – Antonin Dvorak
Saturday, June 16, 7:30 p.m., orchestra
· Overture to the Opera “Don Giovanni” K27 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
· Symphonia Concertrant for Four Woodwinds in Eb major K297B – Mozart
· Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 – Gustave Mahler
· Variations on a Theme of Hydn, op. 56 – Johannes Brahms
· Intermezzo from “Hary Janos” – Zoltan Kodaly
The concert on June 9 will feature the students participating in the Blanche Bryden
Sunflower Music Festival Summer Institute. This program provides young
musicians from across the nation the opportunity for advanced study and
performance experience in chamber music with master teachers and performers.
Admission is via taped auditions from students age 16 to 26.
Doors to all events open at 6:30 p.m., except for the June 9 Blanche Bryden
Institute student concert that begins at 3 p.m. Early arrival is recommended
for all concerts to obtain choice seating.
Music director: Antony Walker
As music director of the Pittsburgh Opera, Antony Walker enjoys the distinction
of serving as one of the youngest music directors of a regional company in the
United States. A gifted musician, he made his professional conducting debut in
1992 in Sydney, Australia, and has conducted 200 operas, large scale
choral/orchestral works, symphonic and chamber works with companies in Europe,
the United States and Australia, in addition to performances and recordings of
early works with the Orchestra of the Antipodes, a period instrument orchestra
which he formed in 2001.
Walker has led operatic performances for Welsh National Opera, Opera Australia,
Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Rome Opera, The Minnesota Opera, Arizona Opera, New
York City Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Vancouver Opera and Cincinnati
Opera. He has also appeared with leading orchestras including Sydney Symphony
Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre Colonne in Paris,
Barossa Festival Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria
and Sinfonia Australis.
A prolific recording artist, Walker has recorded 30 CDs and DVDs of the works
of Beethoven, Mahler, Mozart, Orff, Fauré, Puccini, Verdi, Purcell, Handel and
Bach. His CD collaboration with Teddy Tahu Rhodes garnered the ARIA award for
Best Classical Music Album the Year and his DVD of the Emperor Concerto, on CD
as part of the complete set of the Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5, won the
international DVD Association Award for Music Excellence.
Sean Jones
Sean Jones, trumpeter and composer, was featured on the 2007 Grammy
Award-winning “Turned to Blue” from Nancy Wilson. As a bandleader, Jones has
released five albums under the Mack Avenue Records label. He performs with his
own groups both nationally and internationally, in addition to being a lead
trumpeter for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (which also features Wynton
Marsalis). Jones often plays at music venues and jazz festivals such as the
Monterey Jazz Festival, Detroit International Jazz Festival and Montreal
International Jazz Festival.
For more information on the music festival, call (785) 670-1620; e-mail
sunflower@washburn.edu or go to www.sunflowermusicfestival.org.
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Dena Anson, university relations, (785) 670-1711
