An Evening of Brahms and Colloquium Series Lecture, with Guest Artist Edward Klorman

Three of the School of Music’s faculty members, along with a guest artist, will come together on Friday, January 26th at 8 pm in Ramsey Concert Hall for an evening of Brahms. D. Ray McClellan (clarinet), Elizabeth Knight (mezzo-soprano), and Liza Stepanova (piano) will be joined by guest artist Edward Klorman on viola. Klorman is an assistant professor at the Schulich School of Music at the McGill University in Montreal. He is both a violist and a music theorist.

The concert will be celebrating the late works of Johannes Brahms who is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest masters of Romantic chamber music. “The sonatas by Brahms are among the most sublime works ever written for clarinet. I have wanted to play the two of them together for a long time. Hopefully, the players and the audience will be transported by the beauty of these monumental works,” stated D. Ray McClellan, Professor of Clarinet at the University of Georgia.

The audience will have the rare opportunity to hear both sonatas for clarinet and piano in a single evening in addition to the gorgeous op. 91 songs which feature the unusual combination of voice, viola, and piano. All three works are deeply personal: Brahms came out of retirement to compose his late works for clarinet because he was so impressed with the playing of German clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld. The op. 91 songs were written under dramatic circumstances for the wife of Brahms’ friend Joseph Joachim.

In addition to the performance Friday night, Klorman will also be giving a lecture exploring a deep web of allusions in Brahms clarinet sonatas on Thursday, January 25, at 5pm in Room 408, presented as part of the Colloquium Series. Music students are highly encouraged to attend his lecture. This lecture, as well as the concert, are both free to attend. For more information, please visit music.uga.edu.