Music in Exile concert curatorsMarshall Taylor, Dr. Marion Kant, and Dr. Samuel Hsu TWO VENUES, TWO DATES
Philadelphia Biblical University, BL 210
Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 8:00 PM, and
Temple University, Rock Hall,
Saturday, April 14, 2012, 7:30 PM. Concert repertoire tbd:
ORNSTEIN Ballade (1955?)
MAMLOK Rückblick (in Retrospect): 'Kristallnacht', 9 November 1938 (2002)
SCHOENBERG Untitled fugue fragment: November 10, 1938 ("Kristallnacht Fugue")
FOSS Duo for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2001)
PLESKOW Zwei Albumblätter für Marshall (2008)
PLESKOW Maestro Hsu, His Pavane (2006)
PLESKOW Maestro Hsu, His Fantasy (2010)
PLESKOW Maestro Hsu, His Elegy (2011)
GAL Suite for Alto Saxophone and Piano, Op. 102b (1949)
Performers: Marshall Taylor, saxophone;
Ephraim Schäfli, piano;
Marion Kant, narration. Both concerts are free to the public. Concerts dedicated to the Memory of Dr. Samuel Hsu (1947-2011).
Note from the curators: In 2000, when Dr. Marion Kant was a visiting fellow and Dr. Samuel Hsu a visiting
scholar at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, the
three of us presented under the aegis of the Center what became for us the first in
a series of concerts of music for saxophone and piano by exiled composers (music the
Nazis termed "entartete" or "degenerate").
These ongoing presentations, given in
universities, churches and synagogues, at Symphony Space in NYC and Schloss
Leopoldskron in Salzburg, have included information on the historical background of
this period and its aftermath. The concerts have consistently drawn audiences
appreciative not only of the high quality of the music itself, but cognizant of its
historic and moral dimensions as well.
The present edition of these concerts features music commissioned for us by Temple
University's Jewish Studies program and some recently added repertoire, including
several solo piano pieces written for Dr. Samuel Hsu.
Dr. Hsu's death in December of last year has been a personal loss, keenly felt by
many. For us, it also required rethinking our plans for these concerts, plans which
had been worked out carefully with him. The pianist Ephraim Schäfli, former student
of Dr. Hsu and his last assistant, has taken over his piano duties and these
concerts will now be dedicated to Dr. Hsu's memory. Dr. Kant, now teaching at the
University of Cambridge, will travel to the U.S. to perform as Narrator for the works.
