Drake University is proud to present The Bach Dialogues with Matt Haimovitz and Chistopher O’Riley as part of its Jordan Concert Series on Thursday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Sheslow Auditorium on Drake University’s campus.
Former NPR host Christopher O’Riley and multi-GRAMMY-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz recently launched their new album, The Bach Dialogues (PENTATONE). The artists have a voracious and expansive appetite for a wide range of music from various genres, from Radiohead (Shuffle.Play.Listen) and Pussy Riot (Troika) to Beethoven Sonatas on period instruments (BEETHOVEN, Period.).
Both Haimovitz and O’Riley hold Bach in highest esteem among their multivarious musical passions. With their forthcoming collaboration focusing on Bach’s Sonatas for Viola da Gamba, Haimovitz and O’Riley realize a dream to enter into Bach’s Platonic timbral world. Haimovitz arranges the Viola da Gamba part for his five-string baroque cello piccolo—on which he recorded the Sixth Solo Suite of Bach—with O’Riley playing Bach’s favored keyboard instrument, the clavichord. For their live tour, Haimovitz and O’Riley use the electric five-string cello and the next generation of sound sampling, ‘physical modeling’ of a virtual historical keyboard. Haimovitz and O’Riley perform the three original Bach Gamba Sonatas and C Major Trio Sonata. Solo Preludes and Fugues of Bach from the Well-Tempered Klavier and the Cello Suites, fill out their set.
Much like their earlier immersion in the Beethoven works for cello and piano, BEETHOVEN.Period. released on the PENTATONE Oxingale Series, their exploration of instruments of the composer’s time has wrought new and unique insights resulting in unprecedented freedom and expressivity making The BACH Dialogues an inevitable and exciting new chapter in their long-standing collaboration.
About the Jordan Concert Series
The Jordan Concert Series is named in honor of Alice and Frank B. Jordan, a prominent couple in Drake’s history. Alice (Yost) Jordan graduated from Drake University in 1938 and married Dr. Frank B. Jordan, a long-time professor of music and former dean of Drake University’s College of Fine Arts.
Alice Jordan published more than 250 choral and organ works during a long and distinguished career as a composer. Several of her works gained international exposure. She was active in the Des Moines community, serving on the boards of the Des Moines Symphony Association, the Des Moines Women’s Club, the Drake Alumnae Association, and President of the Des Moines Civic Music Association. She received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Drake in 2006 and was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002.
The Jordans founded the Jordan Concert Series in 1992, and when Alice passed away in 2012, the legacy for the concert series began. The Jordan Concert performance will take place at their namesake venue, the Jordan Stage of Sheslow Auditorium.