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Home › News & Events › Events › FACULTY ARTIST RECITAL SERIES – RIVER TOWN DUO: PHILIP ALEJO, DOUBLE BASS & CLAIRE HAPPEL, HARP

FACULTY ARTIST RECITAL SERIES – RIVER TOWN DUO: PHILIP ALEJO, DOUBLE BASS & CLAIRE HAPPEL, HARP

Faculty Artists, Small Ensembles, Strings Thursday September 21, 2017 - 7:00p.m. to 9:00p.m.

Venue: Holsclaw Hall, 1017 N Olive Rd, Tucson, AZ 85721-0004

The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music presents a Faculty Artist Series recital featuring River Town Duo with Philip Alejo, double bass and Claire Happel, harp. The free-admission recital will take place on Thursday, September 21, 7:00 p.m. in Holsclaw Hall.

Presenting mostly original works commissioned in the past three years, River Town Duo will share a musical experience that is beautifully complementary – the bass is free to explore intimate dynamics and lyrical phrasing, while the harp provides wonderful resonance and rhythmic vitality. Composers will include Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, Evan Premo, UA alumnus Frederick Evans and a transcription by Benjamin Britten.

About the Artists:

River Town Duo
Since its formation in 2012, River Town Duo (Philip Alejo, double bass and Claire Happel, harp) has performed at the University of Arizona, Valparaiso University, Kerrytown Concert House, University of Illinois, Mackinac Island Music Festival, Notre Dame University, and the University of Wisconsin, among other venues. During recent summers, River Town Duo has performed recitals as invited artists at the International Society of Bassists Convention in Fort Collins, Colorado and the American Harp Society Summer Institute in Logan, Utah.

To date, River Town duo has commissioned six composers to write works for double bass and harp. “For Claire and Philip” is a 2014 work by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy winning composer Caroline Shaw. Hannah Lash, who teaches composition at Yale University, wrote “Leaves” and “Space” in 2015. River Town Duo received generous support from the American Harp Society Grants Program to fund both commissions. Frederick Evans, a graduate from the MM in Composition program at the University of Arizona, composed “On Lotusland” in 2015. Composers Evan Premo and Whitney Ashe have recently written new compositions for River Town Duo. Premo is a composer, bassist, and former member of The Academy, an esteemed partnership between the Juilliard School and Carnegie Hall. Ashe isa composer whose classical and jazz compositions have been recorded for television (Warner Bros.) and theater (The Public Theater, New York City). This concert will feature the world premiere of “Oxygen,” a new five movement work from Stephen Taylor, professor and chair of composition-music theory at the University of Illinois.

Philip Alejo is the assistant professor of bass at the University of Arizona. Previously he performed as associate principal bass in the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, taught at St. Ambrose University, and served as visiting professor of bass at the University of Michigan. A former member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra and an orchestral mentor with the Detroit Civic Orchestra, Philip has played with the Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Ensemble Dal Niente, Flint Symphony, and Ann Arbor Symphony. As a chamber musician, Dr. Alejo collaborates regularly with harpist Claire Happel in River Town Duo. Philip has performed at numerous music festivals, including Spoleto Festival USA, Lucerne Festival, Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival, Mackinac Island Music Festival, Oaxaca Instrumenta, Aldeburgh Festival, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. He teaches at the Milt Hinton Institute at Oberlin College, AZASTA Bass Jam, and the Richard Davis Bass Conference at the University of Wisconsin.

Claire Happel is a versatile performer in music and movement. As a harpist, she has performed with the St. Louis Symphony and Civic Orchestra of Chicago among others and formed chamber projects with oboist Karisa Werdon, bassist Philip Alejo (River Town Duo), guitarist James Moore and mandolin player Jeremy Harting (Noble Fowl Trio), and violist Kim Uwate and flutist Kathleen Winters (Trio 114). An advocate of new music, she has performed with contemporary ensembles such as Ostravská Banda, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, International Ensemble Modern Academy, and on the Pulitzer Series of St. Louis, curated by David Robertson. While in graduate school, she founded and directed the group, Yale Movement Improvisation and Composition, and collaborated with choreographer Jennifer Monson to perform live harp with electronics by Zeena Parkins for the dance work, “La Merita.” She has received two City of Chicago Cultural Affairs Grants, an American Harp Society Grant, an Illinois Arts Council Professional Development Grant, and an Urbana Arts Grant, and has performed at American Harp Society Conferences in Chicago and Tacoma, presented at the World Harp Congress in Dublin, and was a Fellow at the Saratoga Harp Colony. She received a Fulbright Grant in 2007-2008 to study with Jana Bouskova in Prague and holds degrees in music performance from Yale University and the University of Illinois, where she also received a BFA in Dance. She currently teaches harp, Alexander Technique, and movement at Valparaiso University and Olivet Nazarene University.

CONTACT: (520) 621-1655
TICKETS: Free admission

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The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music
23 hours ago
The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

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The concert will feature the Arizona Symphony Orchestra and student soloists who won the highly competitive University of Arizona Concerto Competition. Featuring clarinetist Gloria Ines Orozco Dorado, performing the “Black Dog Concerto” by Scott McAllister; pianist Wenxin Guan, performing movements II and III of the Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 by Felix Mendelssohn; mezzo-soprano Martina Portychova, performing “Nobles Seigneurs, salut!” from Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer; and violinist Emmy Tisdel, performing movement I of the Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 35 by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The students are selected from each area of the Fred Fox School of Music – strings, voice, wind and percussion, and keyboard. They represent the depth of talent at the school, shining in this performance with the Arizona Symphony Orchestra. Graduate students Yudai Ueda and Fátima Corona del Toro will conduct the students’ performances. The program will also include works by Myroslav Skoryk and Alexander Borodin, under the baton of Dr. Thomas Cockrell.
***
About Martina Portychova

Born in Liberec, Czechoslovakia, Martina Portychova started her musical education when she was just five years old. She was enrolled at the elite Public Music Academy for piano, and auditioned for the prestigious Children's Choir, where she remained a member throughout high school. In 1995 Ms. Portychova moved from the rolling green pastures of the Czech Republic to the Arizona desert. She lived in Tucson where she attended University of Arizona and earned her Bachelor and master's degree in Voice Performance. When she was not performing, she would explore the desert on her Arabian horse Gypsy Gaim and compete in endurance races. She remained in the United States after her education was completed and moved to New York to seek her professional life. Recently she officially became a citizen here. This was an essential life goal, and her American identity is important in her life. Maintaining dual citizenship in both the Czech Republic and this country gives her a seamless advantage to working anywhere between the European Union and here in the United States. Having grown up in Eastern Europe, Ms. Portychova speaks several languages. Russian, Czech, German, French, Italian, and Latin are her most fluid. Her other personal interests include skiing, horseback riding, and target shooting.
***
Don't miss Martina in the role of Carmen this April!
“La tragédie de Carmen” adapted by Peter Brook, music by Georges Bizet
Friday, April 14, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.
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I know this will be a lovely performance, Martina!

The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music
2 days ago
The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

Check out our February 2023 Concertlist! ... See MoreSee Less

The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music Concertlist

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The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music
2 days ago
The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

Interview with Clarinetist Gloria Orozco Dorado

49th Annual President’s Concert – Arizona Symphony Orchestra
with 2022-2023 Concerto Competition winners
Gloria Ines Orozco Dorado, clarinet
Wenxin Guan, piano
Martina Portychova, mezzo-soprano
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February 4, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
February 5, Sunday, 3:30 p.m.
Crowder Hall, $10 music.arizona.edu/tickets

The concert will feature the Arizona Symphony Orchestra and student soloists who won the highly competitive University of Arizona Concerto Competition. Featuring clarinetist Gloria Ines Orozco Dorado, performing the “Black Dog Concerto” by Scott McAllister; pianist Wenxin Guan, performing movements II and III of the Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 by Felix Mendelssohn; mezzo-soprano Martina Portychova, performing “Nobles Seigneurs, salut!” from Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer; and violinist Emmy Tisdel, performing movement I of the Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 35 by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The students are selected from each area of the Fred Fox School of Music – strings, voice, wind and percussion, and keyboard. They represent the depth of talent at the school, shining in this performance with the Arizona Symphony Orchestra. Graduate students Yudai Ueda and Fátima Corona del Toro will conduct the students’ performances. The program will also include works by Myroslav Skoryk and Alexander Borodin, under the baton of Dr. Thomas Cockrell.

***

About Gloria Orozco Dorado

Clarinetist Gloria Orozco Dorado was born and raised in Colombia. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed in the United States, Colombia, Mexico, and the Netherlands. Gloria is a founding member of Q'iru Duet, a guitar and clarinet Chilean–Colombian duet that performs mainly Latin American music. Q'iru Duet was selected to perform at the International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest 2022 in Reno, Nevada. In 2015, she created Soplan Vientos de Paz project (Winds of Peace are Blowing). Through this program, Gloria has been an in-residence teacher and has raised resources to donate musical equipment to the clarinetists in music schools of four towns going through a decades-long heavy civil war in Cauca, Colombia. Gloria won the 2018 Max Graves Moody Spirit of Innovation scholarship to continue her project in the isolated Leticia Amazonas. With the help of the University of Arizona Fellows Program Professional De-velopment Award, she continued with her initial project. In the summer of 2022, Gloria went to two different towns in Cauca and gave workshops at the Universidad del Cauca. Gloria won the Colombian Republican Bank Youth Artists Competition with ClarINÉS Clar-inet Quartet in 2015. She was selected through an audition to be part of the World Youth Wind Orchestra in 2015 and was a winner of the NEIU Concerto Competition in 2018. Gloria has earned degrees from Universidad del Cauca, Northeastern Illinois University, and Southern Illinois University. Currently a second-year doctoral student at the Universi-ty of Arizona, Gloria studies with Dr. Jackie Glazier under the auspices of a prestigious University Fellows Award.

***

Gloria Orozco Dorado
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Fred Fox School Of Music

P.O. BOX 210004
1017 North Olive Road
Music Building, Room 109
Tucson, AZ 85721-0004

Email: musicweb@cfa.arizona.edu

Phone: 520.621.1655

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