Festival Concert - More Info!

The University of Alabama College of Arts & Sciences School of Music will present a Festival Concert on Friday evening, January 25, 2008 at 7:30 pm. The year 2008 marks the Olivier Messiaen year, the 100^th birthday anniversary of one of the world's most famous and revolutionary 20th Century composers. The University of Alabama School of Music is celebrating "The Messiaen Year: French Connections" with a unique and wonderful, world class series of events which will take place at the Moody School of Music on Friday and Saturday, January 25 and 26, 2008. The Festival Concert featuring UA music faculty, Noel Engebretson, Faythe Freese, Carlton McCreery, Osiris Molina, Peter Rovit, Charles Snead, and the University Singers under the direction of John Ratledge will perform works by Messiaen, Hakim, and Vierne. Tickets are $12 adults, $7 seniors, and FREE to UA students and faculty with ID and Conference participants with conference badge. A free reception open to all concert attendees will be held immediately following the concert in Alumni Hall. For tickets and information, please contact the box office at (205) 348-7111.

Two works of particular note on Friday evening are:

1. "Quartet for the End of Time"

A rare opportunity and life-changing experience to hear Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time", the intensely spiritual work first performed at a German Prison camp in 1940, will take place on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 7:30 pm at Moody Music Building. "Quartet for the End of Time" has never been performed by The University of Alabama.

2. "To Call My True Love to My Dance" (World Premiere)

Also on the Friday evening program, a world premiere of "To Call My True Love to My Dance" commissioned from Naji Hakim, titular organist and successor to Olivier Messiaen at Sainte Trinité Church, Paris, France will be performed by UA organ faculty, Faythe Freese.

For further information on Olivier Messiaen:

http://www.oliviermessiaen.org/messiaen2index.htm

Information on "Quartet for the End of Time":

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~echew/performances/messiaen-qtet.html

Further information on Naji Hakim:

http://www.najihakim.com/

Festival Concert

The University of Alabama College of Arts & Sciences School of Music will present an organ concert on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 4:30 pm. Daniel Roth, titular organist at St. Sulpice, Paris, France will perform works by Nivers, Clérambault, Boëly, Widor, Tournemire, Messiaen, Grunenwald, Roth and Falcinelli. Mr. Roth will close with an improvisation on a submitted theme. Tickets are $12 adults, $7 seniors, and FREE to UA students and faculty with ID and Conference participants with conference badge. For tickets or information, please call (205) 348-7111.

Daniel Roth, widely acclaimed as one of the leading French organ virtuosos, has held several prestigious positions as both performer and teacher. At the age of twenty he made his debut at the organ of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre-Paris, as assistant of his teacher, Madame Rolande Falcinelli. He later succeeded her as titular organist, a post which he held until 1985 when he was appointed titular organist at St-Sulpice, the famous Paris church where is predecessors were Charles-Marie Widor, Marcel Dupré and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald. A former student at the Paris Conservatory, Daniel Roth's teachers have included Marie-Claire Alain and Maurice Durufé. He has won several competitions, among them the Grand Prix de Chartres 1971, interpretation and improvisation.

He is invited to play concerts as a soloist and with famous orchestras. Furthermore he teaches master classes and participates on juries for organ competitions throughout the world.

On the 11th November 2005 he has played the dedication of the new Karl Schuke (Berlin) Organ of the Concert Hall "Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte" in Luxembourg for the construction of which he has been artistic advisor.

A composer as well as performer, Daniel Roth has several works for organ, for flute and organ, choir and organ. The city of Ludwigshafen (Germany) commissioned him an orchestra piece. "Licht im Dunkel" first performed in this town in May 2005 and in Paris, St Etienne du Mont in April 2006 conducted by his son François-Xavier Roth. The work is published by Schott.

For his compositions he received the Florent Schmitt prize awarded by the Académie des Beaux-Arts (Institute de France). Daniel Roth is also well known for his brilliant improvisations which are regularly included in his concerts programs. He has many recordings to his credit covering pieces of the XVIIth century to the present time. Several of them were rewarded by the critics. He is Chavalier de la Légion d’Honneur, Officier des Arts et Lettres, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (London). In 2006 he received the European Prize of European sacred music from the Schwäbisch Gmünd Festival (Germany).

Further information on Daniel Roth:

http://www.danielrothsaintsulpice.org/