Please join Kirk O’Riordan on Saturday, April 9 at 8 p.m. in the Williams Center for an evening of some of his recent compositions. The concert will feature performances by:
Holly Roadfeldt, piano
Phuong Nam Vu ’25, piano
Manaka Gomi ’23, piano
4@10 (Anna Zittle ’22, violin; Beth Anne Castellano ’22, violin; Justin Kogasaka ’22, viola; Kieran Ameres ’25, cello)
Kirk O’Riordan, saxophone
The program will begin with the Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, which was commissioned by a consortium of 15 professional saxophonists in 2019.
4@10, Lafayette’s resident student string quartet, will present the World Premiere of Elegy, which was completed in February.
Humming Spheres (2010) was written for Holly Roadfeldt and Julie Nishimura and premiered at the University of Delaware. Several years later, Humming Spheres became a favorite of the piano duo, duoARtia (pianists Holly Roadfeldt and Jeri-Mae Astolfi) and they gave multiple performances of the work throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Professor Holly Roadfeldt is thrilled that her students Manaka Gomi and Phuong Nam Vu are performing this work. Of them she says “both are incredibly talented and embrace new challenges with grace, enthusiasm, and a sincere respect for the art of music making. I am really looking forward to hearing their performance!”
The nine preludes that Holly Roadfeldt will be performing on this program are from a larger set of 26 preludes composed in 2014. Holly later recorded this set with Chopin’s 24 Preludes for her first solo album “The Preludes Project” released by Ravello Records. “These preludes are always favorites with audiences,” Holly describes “since each prelude is so evocative. Within a few notes you are immediately transported to an innovative sound world that seems familiar yet magical all at the same time.”
The concert will conclude with Kirk O’Riordan’s Lacrimosa (2011). “This work is one of the most powerful compositions Kirk has ever written.” Holly shares “the power comes from the simplicity and the meditative approach. Like the preludes, you are transported, but this time within yourself.”