Monday, October 6, 2008

Indiana University Faculty Violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama Performs in Bloomington

HeraldTimesOnline.com:
By Peter Jacobi
Herald-Times Reviewer
10/6/2008
For the second time since, in summer, Menahem Pressler made his final Bloomington appearance with the disbanding Beaux Arts Trio, he’s taken to an Indiana University stage for a 'Pressler and Friends' program. The more recent came Thursday evening at Recital Hall, and one 'friend' who showed up was Richard Stolzman, quite probably the preeminent clarinetist in the concert world today. Faculty violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama joined the two of them after intermission. And then, soprano Elizabeth Baldwin did, she still a student in the Jacobs School, with recent IU Opera Theater credits as Arabella and as the Countess in 'The Marriage of Figaro.'”

Takemitsu’s 'Air,' though also an exposition of extreme ups and downs, features a less frenetic feel and comes across as more musical. The composer allows the clarinetist to sometimes linger over phrases. In each case, Stolzman conquered the challenges. He, Pressler, and violist Ngwenyama joined talents for 'Hommage a R. Sch.,' by the contemporary Hungarian Gyorgy Kurtag, a composer who’s become a special favorite of Pressler’s.” [Full Post] [Nokuthula Ngwenyama is profiled at AfriClassical.com]

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