The Kalamazoo College Department of Music has two upcoming concerts scheduled featuring renowned guest artists.
First, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia will feature a pianist and a piece she recorded with the Philharmonia that is included in an upcoming independent film. Together, they will perform Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto, which was chosen for Sounds of Silence, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Dalton Theatre.
The film, due out later this year, revolves around a pianist at an international competition and her struggles with the pressures of her art. The concerto was chosen for the movie because it was the first work of Rachmaninoff after a long compositional drought brought on by bad reviews of his First Symphony, mirroring the struggles of the character herself.
The Philharmonia, with Conductor and Music Department Chair Andrew Koehler, unites students, faculty, amateur musicians and professional musicians of a variety of ages to perform symphonic music. Tickets for this concert will be available at the door. Students are $2 and adults are $5. Kalamazoo College students will be admitted free.
The second guest concert will feature Spektral Quartet, a three-time Grammy-nominated group known for interactive concert formats in up-close atmospheres. The group will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Stetson Chapel.
The performance will spotlight nine new works: a string quartet composed by Bernard Rands, plus a series of short pieces written by Chicago Composers’ Consortium (C3) members in response to Bernard’s new work. C3 composers include Larry Axelrod, Kyong Mee Choi, Timothy Dwight Edwards, Kathleen Ginther, Martha Horst, Timothy Ernest Johnson, Laura Schwendinger and Elizabeth Start.
Attendees can purchase tickets on the Connecting Chords Music Festival website and at the door by paying what they can with suggested pricing of $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $5 for ages 25 and younger. All seats are general admission.
Masks and proof of vaccination will be required for admittance to both performances. For more information, email Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu or call 269.337.7070.