Mezzo-soprano Eva Parr and pianist Dr. Andrew Parr will present “The Music of Earl Kelly” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus. The father-daughter team will be joined by SFA music faculty member Dr. Jennifer Dalmas, professor of violin in SFA’s School of Music.
The program will also feature additional works by Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Nadia Boulanger and Lili Boulanger. Dr. Jennifer Dalmas, professor of violin in SFA’s School of Music, will join the Parrs for “Brahms Op. 91 songs for Mezzo, Piano and Viola.”
Kelly was Andrew Parr’s piano professor during his undergraduate studies at Kent State University. A prolific composer, Kelly wrote more than 50 songs and sonatas for various instruments, and solo and duo-piano works. Many of his works were written during his 29 months of service in World War II in North Africa and Italy. Later, after suffering an initial stroke, Kelly was unable to continue to compose. A second stroke left him unable to play the piano, Parr explained.
The aim of the Parrs’ project is to bring Kelly’s music out of obscurity by developing an internet presence, having manuscripts digitally transcribed from manuscript for download, and making some performances of certain works available on YouTube.
“We believe his compositions are of too high a quality to be forgotten,” Andrew Parr said. “In this recital you will hear music no one has heard for 50 years. The recent resurgence of interest in works of the Boulanger sisters may indicate that Kelly’s late-Romantic, French-influenced style could also be relevant today.”
This particular program represents a “bucket list” project for the Parrs – giving a recital together as father and daughter. The same program was previously performed at the National Opera Center in Manhattan this past summer. The program includes four of Kelly’s songs and a piano solo work, “Passacaglia in C.”
Parr explained that while the four Brahms songs that open the program are well-known, as is the program’s final song, “Cäcilie” from Richard Strauss’ Op. 27, the center of the program is dedicated to “lesser-known or unknown music.”
“Nadia Boulanger was a very famous pianist, teacher and composer, who taught most of the major American composers of the 20th century,” he said, “among them Aaron Copland, Elliot Carter, Roy Harris and Virgil Thomson – and many others, including Earl Kelly. Yet Nadia felt that her younger sister, Lili, who died at age 24, was the better composer. She was the first female winner of the Prix de Rome prize for her cantata/opera ‘Faust et Hélène.'”
Eva Parr is a co-founder and art director for New Camerata Opera. In addition to a busy performance schedule that most recently included the roles of Hélène and Concepción in NCO’s double-bill of Lili Boulanger’s “Faust et Hélène” and Ravel’s “L’heure Espangole,” Lola in NCO’s original production of “Cav+Pag,” Bianca in Benjamin Britten’s “The Rape of Lucretia,” and Ada Lovelace in Kamala Sankaram’s “Enchantress,” she creates, designs and oversees marketing materials and strategies for NCO.
Andrew Parr was a piano faculty member in the School of Music from 1983 to 2021 and performed extensively in solo, chamber and concert settings and conducted master classes nationally and internationally. He has taught or performed in Austria, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, the Dominican Republic, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China.
Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. To purchase tickets, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit Fine Arts Box Office website. For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.
ABOUT STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY
Stephen F. Austin State University, the newest member of The University of Texas System, began a century ago as a teachers’ college in Texas’ oldest town, Nacogdoches. Today, it has grown into a regional institution comprising six colleges — business, education, fine arts, forestry and agriculture, liberal and applied arts, and sciences and mathematics. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, SFA enrolls approximately 11,000 students while providing the academic breadth of a state university with the personalized attention of a private school. The main campus encompasses 421 acres that include 37 academic facilities, nine residence halls, and 68 acres of recreational trails that wind through its six gardens. The university offers more than 80 bachelor’s degrees, more than 40 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees covering more than 120 areas of study. Learn more at sfasu.edu.
By Robbie Goodrich, director of arts information
