Everything Nac

Dr. Brad Meyer, director of percussion studies at Stephen F. Austin State University, will perform works by Russell Wharton, Clark Hubbard, Thomas Kotcheff and other percussion composers in a recital at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Meyer will perform Wharton’s unique “Dues Ex Metronome,” which was inspired by the BOSS DB-90 Dr. Beat metronome and incorporates an audio accompaniment created solely from samples recorded and manipulated from the DB-90. Musical influences for the piece were derived from pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan, jazz drummer Mark Guiliana and rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Kotcheff’s Obbligato Snare Drum Music No. 1, or “The Power of Love,” is about “the sensation of loving something so much that you can end up smothering it with your love,” the composer writes. “The title plays on the two contradictory definitions of the word ‘obbligato’ that are used in Western Classical music,” according to Kotcheff. “At times, obbligato describes a musical line that is indispensable to the performance, and at other times obbligato means something that is decorative rather than essential, and that the piece can be performed without the added part.”

Thematically, Hubbard’s “Mountain” is about being in nature and in the mountains. The piece is about the sense of “wonder” one experiences when out in nature and the connection of being in mountains/nature to being at home or church, the composer explains. He states “Mountain” is a “technically challenging” work for marimba that blends contemporary percussion music with pop, electronic and dance music.

Also on the program are “The Offering” by Michael Burritt; “The Endings of Things from a Distance” by Matt Curlee; and “buttonwood” by Evan Chapman.

Concert 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 finearts.sfasu.edu. For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.

Internationally acclaimed pianist Aviram Reichert will perform works of Frédéric Chopin, Paul Ben-Haim and César Franck in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, in Cole Concert Hall on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University.

The program includes Chopin’s Nocturnes: in B flat Minor Op. 9 no 1; in E flat Major Op. 9 no 2; posthumous in C sharp Minor; in D flat Major Op. 27 no 2; and in E Minor Op. 72 no 1, along with Ballade no 1 op 23. Reichert will also perform Ben-Haim’s Five Pieces for Piano Op. 34 and Franck’s prelude, choral and fugue.

Acclaimed for his deeply intelligent interpretations, technique and tone, Reichert won the bronze medal at the 10th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1997, after having won several major competitions in Japan, Korea, France and Germany. His accomplishments brought him numerous concert engagements in the Far East, the United States, South Africa, Europe and Israel where he has been earning praise for more than 25 years.

In addition to his busy concert career, Reichert is a sought-after teacher who is frequently invited to conduct master classes in Japan, China, Korea, South Africa, France, Israel and the United States. He will conduct a master classes for SFA piano students from 10 to 11:30 .m. Thursday, Jan. 12, in Cole Concert Hall.

He is a regular guest faculty member at the prestigious Tel Hai Master Classes in Israel, and he is currently a professor of piano at Seoul National University, College of Music, where his students won numerous local and international awards. A Steinway artist, he studied at the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv.

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 finearts.sfasu.edu. For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.