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Saxophone professor Wildy Zumwalt will perform with the BPO on Friday, April 3 at 8 p.m.
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A post-concert reception will follow in the lobby of the campus’ Art Gallery, adjacent to the concert hall.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for students and are available at www.fredonia.edu/tickets or by calling the SUNY Fredonia ticket office at 716-673-3501.
The world-class symphony will be led under the direction of its resident conductor, Robert Franz. The program includes Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6, a work that is often compared to the great symphonies of Brahms and Beethoven, Carl Nielsen’s Helios Overture, and Lars-Erik Larsson’s Concerto for Saxophone with featured saxophone soloist, Fredonia professor Wildy Zumwalt.
Lars-Erik Larsson’s Concerto for Saxophone, became the first concerto (for any instrument) with orchestra ever televised. The work is crafted in the classical three-movement form, with ambitious cadenzas in the outer movements, and really caters to the expressive voice of the saxophone. Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6 in D Major, has a rich tonal scenario that might have been framed by Beethoven or Brahms. Carl Nielsen’s Helios Overture is an evocative tone poem about the passage of the sun from pre-dawn to evening (in Greek, helios means 'sun'). Nielsen provided a brief narrative for the course of the music: "Silence and Darkness. Then the sun rises to joyful songs of praise, wanders on its golden way, and falls silently into the sea."
Wildy Zumwalt, an associate professor of saxophone at SUNY Fredonia, performs frequently throughout the U.S. and in Europe. Recent performances have included recitals at the Darmstadt Akademie für Tonkunst and the Goethe Institut in Freiburg, Germany. He is equally at home on the solo stage, in intimate chamber music settings, teaching young musicians, or researching historical archives. Zumwalt is a regular performer with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared with the Knoxville Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Flagstaff Symphony, and Tallahassee Symphony. He has also been featured on numerous radio broadcasts including National Public Radio's Performance Today. Prior to his teaching position at SUNY Fredonia, Zumwalt served on the faculty at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
Robert Franz is the Resident Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Music Director of the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra and a Music Director Emeritus of the Carolina Chamber Symphony. Previously he has held conducting positions with the Louisville Orchestra, Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra and the International Music Program Orchestra (NCSA). He has also guest conducted for the Chattanooga, Columbus (OH), Charleston, National Repertory, North Carolina, Reading, Oshkosh, Spokane and Winston-Salem symphonies; the Cumberland Valley Chamber Players; Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, the NCSA summer Music Festival, Illuminations, the Asheville Lyric Opera Company, and the Killington Music Festival String Orchestra.
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1935. Since 1940 its permanent home has been Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Site with an international reputation as one of the finest concert halls in the U.S. It was designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen with F.J. and W.A Kidd, architects. Over the decades the BPO has become world renowned, and as Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, has toured widely across the U.S. and Canada, including concerts at New York’s Lincoln Center, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Hall, Montreal's Place des Arts, and 22 appearances in New York’s Carnegie Hall.
To see an interview with Professor Zumwalt as he discusses the upcoming concert, click here.
