REEDS, STRINGS, and HAMMERS: Music for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano

The UTC Department of Performing Arts Division of Music is pleased to present REEDS, STRINGS, and HAMMERS: Music for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano. The performance will take place on Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall of the UTC Fine Arts Center. 

With performers Wendy Case, Tim Hinck, and Nikolasa Tejero, this dynamic and diverse program features composers who blurred the stylistic line between concert and popular music idioms: Milhaud’s Suite, Op. 157b bears strong influences of Brazilian folklore and American jazz, his two favorite “non-classical” styles. Bartok’s Contrasts is steeped in the folklore of his native Magyar people. Scott McAllister’s X3 channels heavy metal rock, including a quotation of the iconic ostinato from English rock band Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Gian Carlo Menotti’s Trio embraces the composer’s Italian roots and affinity for the Italian operatic tradition. This program also pays homage to four musicians who helped create a body of repertoire for clarinet, violin, and piano: clarinetists Benny Goodman and Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr and violinists Joseph Szigeti and Walter Verdehr. In their respecting pairings, these performers commissioned works from the great masters of the 20th century, and, in the case of the Verdehr Trio, these efforts continue today. 

Admission is free and open to the public. 

The Roland Hayes Concert Hall is located at 752 Vine Street, Chattanooga, TN 37403. For additional information, visit www.utc.edu/Music. 

Performer Bios: 

Nikolasa Tejero is Associate Professor of Clarinet and Woodwind Area Coordinator at The University of Tennessee–Chattanooga, where she also coaches chamber music, teaches theory and literature courses, and conducts research on Latin American art music traditions (in 2014, Scholars’ Press published her book Music and Culture: Folklore in Cuban Clarinet Music). An active performer, lecturer, and clinician, Dr. Tejero has presented at conferences and festivals across the US and internationally (in Europe, South America, and Australia). She is also a recording artist for Carl Fischer Music’s Trade Winds Recording Ensemble, which records annually the publisher's new and rereleased compositions. Celebrated for her engaging and creative programs, Tejero appears regularly as recitalist. The Post and Courier, (Charleston, SC) described her playing as “…[possessing] technical and musical mastery...rhythmic and expressive flavor.” This fall, she will perform a solo clarinet recital (as part of a worldwide celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founder of the Baha’i Faith’s birth). She is artistic director and performing artist with the EnVaGe (Ensemble of Variable Geometry) concert series, offering its inaugural season in 2017-18. An advocate for the arts as a vehicle to effect positive change in our communities, Dr. Tejero has partnered with the Chattanooga Public Library’s Children’s Department to create Symphonic Tales, a music-and-literacy program for young children, now in its fourth season. 

Wendy Case has performed all over the world as a chamber musician and recitalist. She has collaborated with prestigious musicians such as David Finckel, Amir Eldan, Kirsten Docter, Soovin Kim, and ensembles including the Blossom Festival (Cleveland Orchestra), and the American Symphony. Her passionate performances have been heard on NPR, in Carnegie Hall, the National Opera Center, the Kimmel Center, and Severance Hall. She studied at the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her most influential teachers include Andrew Jennings, Yehonatan Berick, Philip Setzer (Emerson Quartet), Soovin Kim, Hai Xin Wu, and William Preucil. Dr. Case currently serves on the music faculty of Berry College, Covenant College, and Chattanooga State. She performs with Kolkata Classics, the Ensemble of Variable Geometry (a chamber ensemble dedicated to premiering new compositions), the Knoxville Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony, and the Nashville Opera. Her current projects include several recording endeavors and a series of articles on the interplay of advanced string technique and acoustical physics. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, painting, and spending time with friends. 

Tim Hinck is a concert pianist, composer, and a former Fullbright Scholar to the Netherlands. His musical compositions and multimedia performances have been presented regionally across the Southeast and abroad in Spain and the Netherlands. Exploration and discovery are the fundamental elements of Hinck's performances. His passion for wine and the culinary world combine with his discipline as an athlete and rock climber to inspire his multi-sensory performance experiences in unexpected places. Whether conducting an orchestra of electronic instruments in an abandoned warehouse, or performing Beethoven on a grassy field, Hinck brings clarity to the tumultuous, human experience. Hinck is a musical coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, frequent music director at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, and a teacher at St. Peter's School and the McCallie School. His recent commissions have included multimedia works and original compositions for CreateHere, the Chattanooga Public Library, EPB's GigTank Demo Day, and the River Rocks Festival in Chattanooga. Hinck’s latest opera Eve Apart premiered in Pittsburgh, PA in 2015.