Pianist will join Dana Composers for fall concert

The concert will include two world premieres.

the vindicator

YOUNGSTOWN — Bulgarian pianist and new Dana School of Music faculty member Zahari Metchkov will be the guest artist at Wednesday night’s New Music Society fall concert.

A specialist in 20th century music, Metchkov has performed in Europe and Israel. He is finishing a doctorate in piano performance at Cleveland Institute of Music. He has won several awards, including the Henry Fusner Prize for Excellence of Achievement, and the Wu Memorial Award in Piano.

Metchkov is equally adept at piano and organ, serving as the organist at Epworth-Euclid United Methodist Church in Cleveland. He joined the Dana piano faculty this fall.

Metchkov will perform Three Scenes from “Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky transcribed by Guido Agosti, with the Dana Composers Ensemble, directed by Robert Rollin, in Bliss Recital Hall at 8 p.m.

The ensemble will perform without Metchkov at the Butler Institute of American Art at noon Wednesday. Both events are free.

Two world premieres will be performed by members of the ensemble.

Senior Wendy Portis, viola, and Dana faculty Tim Webb, piano, will premiere a movement by Richard Zacharias’ Sonata for Viola and Piano. Zacharias is a community member of the New Music Guild, and is active as both a composer and performer.

Joan Bradford will perform the premiere of her own work, “Pensive Moment,” on soprano saxophone with Dana faculty member Robert Rollin on piano. Bradford is finishing her music education degree while teaching in local schools.

Wednesday evening will see a performance of Rollin’s improvisational piece, “Hexarchic Episodes.” The work is written for six unspecified instruments. The Composers Ensemble will perform a version for clarinet, alto sax, euphonium, percussion, guitar and piano with the composer conducting.

Two works will be played by Dana faculty Gwyneth Rollin, violin, and Robert Rollin, piano: “Sailor’s Song” by Darius Milhaud” and “Two Klezmer Wedding Songs” by Robert Rollin.

Junior composition major Ryan Coffey will perform the guitar solo “Usher Waltz” by Russian composer and guitarist Nikita Koshkin. This work is inspired by a story of Edgar Allen Poe.

The Dana School of Music Convocation at 11 a.m. Friday in Bliss Recital Hall will contain another recital and will include a transcribed percussion performance of a work by living American composer Steve Reich. This concert is also free.