The University at Albany Department
of Music is pleased to present a special concert by percussionists Richard
Albagli, Nick Manning and Nick Tariello entitled Music and the Spirit on Monday, September 24, 2007 at 8pm
in the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus. The trio will be joined by members of the
Empire State Youth Percussion Ensemble.
In the program,
music of Wagner, Sibelius, Chopin and Ravel will be woven together with
commentary and readings from African, Oriental and Euro-American traditions to
present a unique Concert of Ideas. The centerpiece of the presentation comes
from a work by John Cimino, Something
Between a Dream and a Miracle, which looks at music, the spirit and
imagination. The complex strains of the first movement of Jean Sibelius’ Fourth Symphony --- alternately brooding
and soaring, plunging the listener into the depths of the soul and the heights
of revelation --- will then challenge the audience to experience a spiritual
epiphany of their own, to open up their minds and imaginations to the power of
music. Members of the Empire State Youth
Percussion Ensemble will join the trio for Maurice Ravel’s
Other works to be
performed on the program will include Ravel’s Alborada Del Gracioso; Ney Rosauro’s Brazilian Fantasy; Mark Ford’s Afta-Stuba,
a lively and theatrical work which is a sequel to Stubernic performed last year by this trio; and some music from the
vaudeville stage.
Richard Albagli is the Principal Percussionist with the Albany
Symphony Orchestra, Director of the Empire State Youth Percussion Ensemble and
a member of the music faculties of the University at
As co-founder of
Associated Solo Artists (ASA), Albagli has helped create interdisciplinary programs
in the arts, sciences and humanities for schools from kindergarten through
college. ASA’s trademark Concert of Ideas and its programs for the corporate
and governmental sectors in leadership and creativity development have been
presented in more than twenty states,
A graduate of both
RPI (physics) and the Eastman School of Music (performance), Albagli has
written more than 20 works for solo percussion and percussion ensemble, along
with a timpani concerto and two works for ensemble and
chorus. As a collaborator with John Cimino and Jon Klibonoff of ASA, he has
composed a dozen art songs for voice and percussion, a musical play for
children entitled “The Great Dinosaur Rescue,” and a one-act opera, The Star Thrower, based on a Loren
Eiseley essay of the same name.
Nick Manning and
Nick Tariello are two of Albagli’s top students. They have been part of his faculty recitals
since 2004.
Manning is a senior
at
Tariello is a junior at
Prior to the
performance, Richard Albagli will offer a pre-concert talk for audience members
starting at
Tickets are $6 for the general public and $3 for students and may be purchased through the Performing Arts Center Box Office. For further information, contact the Box Office at (518) 442-3997 or visit the Performing Arts Center website at www.albany.edu/pac.
