Centre for Musical Arts presents Music and Morality, April 13 at Memorial Hall.
A lot goes on at the UNB Arts Centre. The building is home to the majority of artistic work produced and hosted through the university’s various arts branches. It has a pair of galleries that regularly host local and traveling exhibitions. It also serves as a home to Theatre UNB productions throughout the year, and the university’s Centre for Musical Arts which offers private and group lessons, more than one annual music festival, and regular concerts throughout the year.
The next concert planned to take place at Memorial Hall features Nadia Francavilla (violin), Stephen Runge (piano), Richard Hornsby (clarinet). Their performance, Music and Mortality, will explore music’s relationship to social and political causes, particularly those of high controversy. UNB Resident Musician Nadia Francavilla will look at how music has supported or been directly associated with unethical wars and the brutal tyrants who lead them.
In what is sure to be an interesting and very relevant evening of music, Francavilla, Runge and Hornsby will perform works by Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Igor Stravinsky and Charles Ives and ask the question: How should we respond to composers who endorse anti-Semitism, fascism, or other forms of intolerance?
Music and Morality | April 13 | Memorial Hall, UNB | 7:30 p.m. | Buy Tickets
About the Performers
Nadia Francavilla: Nadia, a Montreal-born violinist and music educator, brings a collaborative spirit, a passion for new music, and a distinctly European sensibility to her performing and teaching work. A McGill University graduate, she trained under Mauricio Fuks, Raphael Druian and Joseph Silverstein. Her orchestral background includes l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Les Violons du Roy, and she spent several years with Quatuor Arthur-LeBlanc and Quatuor Bozzini, producing recordings and touring in North America, Europe and Japan. At present, she performs most often with Motion2, Atlantica and Moineaux D’Entendre, exploring classical and contemporary works in mixed chamber music settings.
Richard Hornsby: Richard is an active performer, educator, arts administrator and arts advocate. A specialist in clarinets and saxophones, he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Canada the U.S. and Europe. He has also performed with major Canadian orchestras such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony. On saxophone, he was a member of the Canadian Saxophone Quintet and a member of New Brunswick’s new music ensemble, Motion, with which he has toured most of Canada, performed at major music festivals and recorded several CDs. He is also the founder and artistic director of Atlantic Sinfonia, eastern Canada’s professional chamber orchestra. In demand as a performer, conductor, teacher, clinician, adjudicator and speaker, Richard maintains an active performing career while holding the position of Director of Music at the University of New Brunswick where he teaches conducting, Canadian music history, music technology and conducts ensembles. He is also Conductor in Music Director of the Fredericton Symphony Orchestra.
Stephen Runge: Praised for his sensitivity and versatility, pianist Stephen Runge has been heard from Victoria to Halifax as soloist and collaborative artist. Stephen has been broadcast nationally on CBC Radio Two and La Chaîne Culturelle de Radio-Canada, receiving special recognition as soloist and for his frequent performances of chamber music and art song. In recent seasons he has shared the stage with artists such as violinists Jasper Wood, Andréa Tyniec and Kerry DuWors, tenor David Pomeroy, mezzo-sopranos Krisztina Szabó and Patricia Green, and pianist Adam Sherkin, and has appeared as soloist with the Regina Symphony Orchestra and the Mount Allison Chamber Orchestra. Stephen has recorded all the major works for solo piano by Robert Schumann, an album of solo piano works from 1917, and a recital of English art song with countertenor Daniel Cabena.
