Anthony Devroye
Anthony Devroye, NIU School of Music viola professor and violist of the Avalon String Quartet, will present a recital at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, in the Recital Hall of the Music Building.
Guest pianist George Lepauw will join Devroye to feature the music of Beethoven, Schubert and Shostakovich. Admission is free.
“This program is based around Beethoven,” Devroye says.
“We will begin with the U.S. premiere of a new arrangement of Beethoven’s Horn Sonata, op. 17, for viola and piano, which was recently completed by the English violist Paul Silverthorne. Following that will be music by two composers who revered Beethoven, and strongly felt that they worked in his shadow. Schubert was a close contemporary, and even a pallbearer at Beethoven’s funeral. Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata, a dark and powerful work, discretely quotes a famous Beethoven excerpt in its final movement.”
This recital serves as a prelude to two major Beethoven-centric projects coming up in Chicago: the Beethoven Festival from Sept. 14 through 18; and the Avalon Quartet’s survey of the complete Beethoven String Quartets at the Art Institute of Chicago, beginning Oct. 23 and continuing through June 3, 2012.
George Lepauw
The Avalon also will present this series at NIU’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall, beginning at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26.
Lepauw is the artistic director of the International Beethoven Project and the Beethoven Festival.
The Festival will bring together leading Chicago musicians for five days of nearly continuous performances. More than 80 pieces of music will be presented. Most concerts are held at the Chicago Urban Art Society, located at 2229 S. Halsted St. in the Pilsen neighborhood.
Devroye and Lepauw will perform their recital program at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, but DeKalb listeners have the chance to hear the program locally first.
