Composer and Violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama
has a website at www.ngwenyama.com
and is featured at AfriClassical.com
March 15, 2016
The stars were out in Newnan Saturday for the 2016 edition of Friends of Wadsworth.
The
concert series that continues a tradition of more than two decades for
Wadsworth Auditorium audiences again delivered with a lineup of
world-class singers and musicians.
***
Now
leading the annual chamber music programs as artistic director and host
is fellow Newnan homegrown talent Courtenay Budd, a soprano with her
own busy stage career. In her newest endeavor, later this month she will
perform and record David Del Tredici's demanding "Child Alice' with the
Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
This
weekend Budd shared the spotlight with baritone Randall Scarlata, who
has appeared as a soloist with top orchestras and on important concert
stages throughout the world. Scarlata is particularly well known for his
interpretations of German Lieder and American Art Song. Joining them
was a group of acclaimed artists from the chamber music world including
violinist Chee-Yun who has performed for Newnan audiences in multiple
Wadsworth concerts, violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, cellist Wendy Sutter
and pianist Laura Ward.
Budd
also shared a touching tribute to the late Don Nixon who for more than
10 years led the development and operation of the Coweta County School
System's Centre for Performing and Visual Arts. With his recent passing
she honored Nixon's memory with her performance of the song “Morgen”
(Tomorrow) by Richard Strauss. The piece, Budd said, expresses comfort,
confidence in love, tranquility, and hope for tomorrow ... a fitting
tribute for "a life lost too soon."
Loosely translated the poem goes:
"And tomorrow the sun will shine again,
and we will be reunited on the wide, sun-bathed shore,
and upon us will descend the mute silence of happiness."
Budd
dedicated Saturday's performance to the memory of Don Nixon, who she
referred to as "a dear friend, to many of us personally, but also to the
arts in our community."
"Don
Nixon was a devoted and invaluable supporter of our work here," Budd
wrote in a letter to "Friends of Wadsworth" included in Saturday's
concert program.
"He
was passionate about bringing good music to Newnan and especially about
introducing younger audiences," she wrote. "We always relied on Don to
lend us his expertise, providing everything from music stands to
priceless moral support. We are grateful to have known him, and we will
miss him."
Opening
the program on light themes of love and music, food and wine, Budd and
Scarlata shared a collection of six selections from "Twenty-five
Scottish Songs, Op. 108 by Ludwig van Beethoven. The Scottish folksongs
were a nod to Newnan's recent Robert Burns Weekend celebration, an event
celebrating Newnan's ongoing sister city relationship with Ayr,
Scotland.
As
part of the concert's first half Ms. Ngwenyama, a Phoenix resident who
both performs and writes music, previewed her new composition for viola.
The piece, "Sonoran Storm," paints a driving musical picture of the
rain storms that come to that area of the country. The Newnan audience
got to hear the piece she will be performing later this month in Los
Angeles.
The
second half started with a French theme, featuring pieces by Ernest
Chausson, Alfred Bachelet, Maurice Ravel and Erik Satie, performed by
Budd and Scarlata with the talented Laura Ward at the piano.
Courtenay
Budd shared memories of singing at the spring Spoleto festivals in
Charleston, with Charles Wadsworth at the keyboard and his great career
rubbing elbows with all the greats of classical music, including 20
years as accompanist for the famed Beverly Sills. If it could not be
Charles Wadsworth at the piano, Ward put the artists in great hands for
Saturday's concert, she reflected. Budd has shared the stage with Ward
in Spoleto, Italy for the last two summers.
Budd
and Scarlata performed a pair of German pieces: Budd singing
"Fruhsingstimmen Walzer" by Johann Strauss Jr. and Scarlata presenting
"Mein Sehnen, Mein Wahnen (Die Tote Stadt)" by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
Together they performed "Love Unspoken (The Merry Widow)" by Franz
Lehar.
Chee-Yun
and Nokuthula Ngwenyama performed an arrangement for violin and viola
of "Passacaglia in G Minor on a Theme" by George Freidrich Handel. The
piece was often performed at chamber concerts to showcase the talents of
the musicians, explained Chee-Yun as she introduced the piece.
Concluding
the evening's program, Chee-Yun and Ngwenyama were joined by Wendy
Sutter on cello and Laura Ward on piano for the finale from Antonin
Dvorak's "Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, op. 87," bringing the audience
to their feet.
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