Brooklyn Rider  

String Quartet
Friday, September 26, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
School of Music Recital Hall – Free

"They are four classical musicians performing with the energy of young rock stars jamming on their guitars, a Beethoven-goes-indie foray into making classical music accessible but also celebrating why it was good in the first place." – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Brooklyn-based string quartet has been called "one of the wonders of classical music," by the LA Times. They tour and record regularly with the likes of Bela Fleck and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, and in recent years have performed in one of the more diverse lineups of venues imaginable, including the Ojai Music Festival, the Cologne Philharmonie, the U.S. Open Tennis tournament, Lincoln Center, and Austin's South by Southwest, where the quartet was the only classical group with an official invitation to play. Their Southern Exposure program will include Philip Glass's second string quartet, as well works from their latest recording project, the ambitious, cross-disciplinary Brooklyn Rider Almanac (Mercury Classics).

Kartik Seshadri

Sitar Virtuoso
Friday, November 14, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
School of Music Recital Hall – Free

"The mood here was sensual, even blissful . . . with the piece ending in an ecstatic cloud of swirling notes." – The Washington Post

If one can say that any of Southern Exposure's past concerts deserves the epithet "legendary," sitar virtuoso Kartik Seshadri's Southern Exposure performance nearly 10 years ago would surely be among the first mentioned, remembered by those in attendance as a magical, emotionally-charged, unforgettable evening. He is joined by another major figure in Indian classical music, the tabla player Abhijit Banerjee.

Dolce Suono Ensemble with soprano Rachel Calloway

Soprano, Baritone, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano and Percussion
Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
School of Music Recital Hall – Free

"Think classical music is stuffy and inaccessible? Think again."  – The Bulletin (Philadelphia)

An evening with Philadelphia-based stars Dolce Suono, with a core group of artists from world-renowned Philly institutions like the Curtis Institute of Music and Philadelphia Orchestra, led by flutist Mimi Stillman, is certain to be equally astounding. Please note: due to illness, Lucy Shelton is replaced by Rachel Calloway, praised by the NY Times for "penetrating clarity" and "considerable depth of expression" and Opera News for her "adept musicianship and dramatic flair." This concert is comprised of two works that set ancient Chinese poetry, by Pulitzer-prize winner Shulamit Ran and USC's own Fang Man, and will be preceded by a 6:30 p.m. presentation by Joseph Lam, chair of the Department of Musicology at the University of Michigan.

Music and Society: Hartke's "Sons of Noah"and Andriessen's "De Staat" 

Music and Society: Hartke's "Sons of Noah"
and Andriessen's "De Staat"
Friday, March 20, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
W.W. Hootie Johnson Performance Hall (Moore School of Business 1014 Greene St.)– Free

"Andriessen's big boned, hectically minimalist political essay De Staat demonstrated that it is possible to adapt Stravinskian rhythmic material to wholly individual ends." – Daily Telegraph

Performed by a bevy of USC's world-class faculty and superb students, these major works take on extra-musical topics relating music and society/politics – and, quite apart from any lessons that might be imparted, are masterful, mesmerizing pieces of music. Stephen Hartke's "Sons of Noah," featuring USC soprano Tina Stallard and three highly unusual quartets of instruments – classical guitars, flutes and bassoons – sets a short story written during the Crimean War, the first modern conflict between the Islamic world and Europe: a satirical imagining of three "missing chapters of the Bible." Hartke's music has echoes of old and new styles, from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to Igor Stravinsky, and strikes a powerful emotional chord. Dutch post-minimalist icon Louis Andriessen's De Staat (which, while composed in an entirely different style than Sons of Noah, also owes something to the rhythmic legacy of Stravinsky) sets texts from Plato's Republic. The big, robust work with a large number of singers, brass, woodwinds, strings, pianos and electric guitars onto the stage will blow the roof off of the new hall!