Pianist Tony Caramia and violinist Renée Jolles – both instructors at the Eastman School of Music – present a program exploring three rather different parts of the genius of “the dean of African-American composers,” William Grant Still. Still worked in all genres of music including classical (the first African American in the US to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, the RPO), jazz (arranging for both W.C. Handy and Artie Shaw), Broadway (playing in some of the pit orchestras), modern music (studying in New York with Edgard Varèse), and Hollywood (working in film and radio).
You're invited to hear this music on Live from Hochstein on Wednesday April 26th at 12:10pm, in person* at the Hochstein Performance Hall (50 N. Plymouth Avenue, downtown Rochester) or by listening to the live broadcast on WXXI Classical.
Still’s Three Visions is a suite in three parts for solo piano that depicts an apocalypse, an afterlife, and reincarnation. His mystical and elusive Seven Traceries were his attempt to capture seven aspects of God. Caramia plays the first three movements.
Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano took as its inspiration three sculptures: Richmond Barthé’s African Dancer, Sargent Johnson’s Mother and Child, and Augusta Savage’s Gamin, each one by artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music since 1990, Tony Caramia directs the Piano Pedagogy Studies program, coordinates the Class Piano program, and teaches applied piano and beginning jazz piano. He has released six recordings, including Hot Ivories, Nimble-Fingered Gentleman, Zebra Stripes, Brass Knuckles, Upstate Standards with trombonist Mark Kellogg, and Tribute.
Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music, Renée Jolles enjoys an eclectic career as soloist and chamber artist specializing in a wide variety of styles from the Baroque to the contemporary. She has premiered hundreds of works, including the American premiere of Schnittke’s Violin Concerto No. 2. In 2014, she inaugurated Eastman’s celebrated annual Holocaust Remembrance Concert series.
Live from Hochstein with host Mona Seghatoleslami is a series midday concerts by some of the finest artists in our area broadcast live from The Hochstein Performance Hall. Each of these free concerts runs from 12:10-12:50 p.m., giving downtown business people, teachers, families, students, and friends an opportunity to enjoy classical music during the day. You can also hear an encore broadcast of Live from Hochstein later the same day at 10 p.m. on WXXI Classical.
* Masks and vaccination are encouraged but not required. Please note that only bottled water is allowed in the newly renovated hall.