Musicians, educators from Atlanta, Houston join UGA faculty for chamber recital

Members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and a member of the famed Medici String Quartet will perform with UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music faculty members in a special performance in Ramsey Concert Hall on Monday, September 12, at 8 p.m.

Violinist Kenn Wagner and cellist Joel Dallow from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Ivo-Jan van der Werff, professor of viola at Rice University, join the School of Music’s Michael Heald and Maggie Snyder, associate professors of violin and viola.

The quintet will perform Brahms’ String Quintet No. 2 in G major and Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 2 in B flat major.

“The Brahms and Mendelssohn string quintets are marvelous examples of contrast in the Romantic era,” said Heald. “They both represent the characters of each composer. The Brahms is rather dark and brooding in character, while the Mendelssohn has a swashbuckling feeling of heroism.”

Heald expressed excitement over the wealth of experience and talent assembling for this performance.

“There will be a freshness to the performances as musical colleagues come together for the first time in pursuit of chamber music pleasure,” said Heald.

The performance is admission-free and will be streamed live on the Hodgson School’s website at music.uga.edu/streaming.

Joel Dallow has been a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1999, is a faculty member at Georgia State University and is a chamber musician and founder of Riverside Chamber Players, Inc., an ensemble dedicated to performing high quality chamber music concerts in the outlying suburbs of Atlanta.

Kenn Wagner has been a first violinist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1994 and has also served as acting assistant concertmaster of the ASO for one season. He has soloed nationally and internationally with dozens of symphony orchestras from New Orleans to New Zealand. Wagner is also a faculty member at Kennesaw State University and Morehouse College.

Throughout 30 years and over 2000 concerts as violist with the Medici String Quartet, Ivo-Jan van der Werff has toured the world, playing in major venues and cities in more than 50 countries on five continents, as well as playing on more than 40 recordings for EMI, Koch Entertainment and Nimbus Records, including the complete cycle of Beethoven quartets.

The UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music sponsors more than 350 performances each year. To view the performance calendar, subscribe to the weekly email concert listing or learn more about the School of Music, go to music.uga.edu.

Photo: Joel Dallow (left), Ivo-Jan van der Werff (top right) and Kenn Wagner (bottom right) will perform with Hugh Hodgson School of Music faculty members in Ramsey Concert Hall at the UGA Performing Arts Center on September 12 at 8 p.m.