Directed by Mark Conley, Lively Experiment is URI’s elite small vocal ensemble, specializing in complex harmonies and presenting a wide range of musical periods and styles, from the Renaissance to contemporary. The program for this holiday concert is billed as “music of the season…with a twist or two.” Admission costs $10 general audience and $5 for students with ID.
The Undergraduate Honors String Quartet is URI’s premier student chamber music ensemble. Members of the quartet are chosen annually by audition and perform two full programs of advanced literature for the public each year in addition to other performances. Admission to this concert is free.
Performing will be: violinist Allison Dubois, a sophomore from Miller Place, N.Y., who is double majoring in Music Education and Performance; violinist Donald Martin from North Easton, Mass., a senior with a Music Performance Major and Psychology Minor; violist Christina Stavrakas, a sophomore from Medfield, Mass., who is majoring in both Music Performance and Psychology, and cellist Emily Johnston, a sophomore from North Kingstown, who is a Music Education Major. They will perform five movements from String Quartet No. 5 in E minor by G. Donizetti, and a movement from String Quartet No. 1, Op. 27, by E. Grieg.
The quartet is directed by faculty artist Susan Robison, who became the ensemble’s director this fall following the retirement of Professor John Dempsey from the URI Music Department. Robison is an active teacher and performer with a Masters of Music degree in Performance from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelors of Music in Performance, cum laude, from Ball State University. She has performed as soloist with the Kokomo Symphony Orchestra and the Grace Community Orchestra in Indiana, and has given recitals and chamber music performances in Minnesota, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and throughout France and Belize. In 2006 she was on the faculty at the Indiana University Summer String Academy.
In addition to her work at URI, Robison currently teaches cello the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut and the Hartt School Community Division where she is also co-director of the string chamber music program. A versatile teacher, she has students between the ages of 6 and 65, beginners to advanced. She is also an active chamber music coach, and is the program coordinator for ARIA International Summer Academy, where she is also on the cello faculty.
Concert tickets are available on a first-come basis starting 45 minutes before each event. The URI Concert Hall is handicap-accessible, and parking is available in the lot behind the Fine Arts Center, off Bills Road.
For more information, please contact the URI Department of Music, 874-2431, or check the website: www.uri.edu/artsci/mus.