Close to the Bridge: Cello Recital by Alistair MacRae

TACOMA, Wash. –  Each concert musician’s undiluted passion for his own instrument is never more clear than when he gets the freedom to design and explain his own recital program.

So it was when Alistair MacRae, the Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel Artist in Residence at University of Puget Sound, prepared his notes for an upcoming cello recital.

MacRae enigmatically chose the title, Close to the Bridge, for a performance of wide-ranging works that audiences can hear at 7:30 p.m., on Friday, March 31, in Kilworth Memorial Chapel on campus. Ticket information for the concert is below.

“I’m really excited to offer this concert in the Jacobsen Series,” MacRae wrote in his notes. “The recital’s title, Close to the Bridge, is both a play on the construction of the cello (the wooden bridge under the strings) and a metaphor for moments in which we experience human transitions or connections.

“The program spans 275 years of musical history, and each piece represents, in its own way, that metaphor. These transitions and connections are, by turns, programmatic, historical, musical, and personal. With a few words from the stage before each piece, I hope to illuminate these meanings for the audience.”

The concert includes great works for the cello, from the Baroque through the romantic eras, as well as some impressive new works, including one by Puget Sound graduate Jonathan Mei ’16. In addition to MacRae, the performers include Tanya Stambuk, piano; Michael Seregow, harpsichord; Maria Sampen, violin; and guest artist Allison Pohl, soprano. The evening’s program:

Antonio Vivaldi: Sonata No. 3 in A minor for Cello and Harpsichord, RV 43 (1740)
Steven Gerber: Elegy on the Name “Dmitri Shostakovich,” for solo cello (1991)
Jonathan Mei ’16: Blue Hijaz, for violin and cello (2015)
Gabriel Fauré: Élégie, Op. 24, for cello and piano (1880)
David Dzubay: Arise, for soprano and cello (2013)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 4 in C Major for Piano and Cello, Opus 102, No. 1 (1815)

The Jacobsen Series, named in honor of Leonard Jacobsen, former chair of the piano department at Puget Sound, has been running since 1984. The Jacobsen Series Scholarship Fund awards annual music scholarships to outstanding student performers and scholars. The fund is sustained entirely by season subscribers and ticket sales.

FOR TICKETS: Tickets are available online at tickets.pugetsound.edu, or at Wheelock Information Center, 253.879.3100. Admission is $15 for the general public; $10 for seniors (55+), students, military, and Puget Sound faculty and staff. The concert is free for current Puget Sound students. Group ticket rates are available for parties of 10 or more by calling 253.879.3555 in advance. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.

For directions and a map of the campus: pugetsound.edu/directions 
For accessibility information please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3931, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.

Press photos of Alistair MacRae can be downloaded from pugetsound.edu/pressphotos.
Photos on page: From top right: Alistair MacRae; Charles Bridge in Prague, by Chosovi (Creative Commons)

Tweet this: #Cello, oh soooo mellow. Concert @univpugetsound w Alistair MacRae. Fri. Mar 31, Music old & new #Tacoma http://bit.ly/2n47cz8

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