Sept. 14, 2021

Contact Mary Ellen Haupert at 608-796-3770 or mehaupert@viterbo.edu

VITERBO UNIVERSITY OUT-OF-OUR-MINDS CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES TO CELEBRATE MUSICAL MENTORS

LA CROSSE, Wis. – Viterbo University faculty member Mary Ellen Haupert and several other accomplished musicians from the La Crosse area will perform the music of Dvořák and Brahms to open the 2021–22 Out-of-Our-Minds Chamber Series at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25 in the Viterbo Fine Arts Center Nola Starling Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The first concert honors the friendship between Antonin Dvořák and Johannes Brahms.  Brahms first encountered Dvořák’s writing as an adjudicator for a composition competition in Austria. He was so impressed byDvořák’s first symphony that he introduced the young composer to his publisher (Simrock)—launching Dvořák’s career and international fame.  Michelle Lee Elliott (violin), Derek Clark (cello), and Mary Ellen Haupert (piano) will performDvořák’s Piano Trio No. 4, Op. 90 ("Dumky"), which features several Bohemian folk melodies and was a favorite of the composer. Violist Busya Lugovier will join Elliott, Clark, and Haupert for Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25.

The second, third, and fourth concerts in the series feature three of the Op. 101 piano trios by Anton Reicha, a Czech composer who moved to Germany in his youth and became friends with Ludwig van Beethoven. Haupert devoted time on her spring sabbatical to engrave the trios for performance and future publication. 

“Reicha was a prolific composer whose works are rarely performed yet are immediately attractive,” Haupert said. “I have been fortunate to work with violinist Kristina Gullion and cellist Monika Sutherland on the project. They will bring three of the trios to life this year.”

Reicha was an esteemed teacher of composition who left a legacy at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Music by three of his more famous students are programmed with the piano trios. The second concert on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. includes Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18 performed by Haupert and pianist-colleague Meredith Mihm, as well as his Nocturne performed by baritone James Wilson. The third concert on Sunday, Feb. 13 features the music of Louise Farrenc; violinist Nancy Oliveros will perform her second sonata. The fourth concert on Monday, April 25 brings soprano Ann Schoenecker to the stage for selected songs by Franz Liszt. There will be a freewill offering at each concert to subsidize the series.

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