Beethoven’s 250th Birthday Bash

Friday, February 21, 2020 at 7:30pm
Crowell Concert Hall

$28 general public; $26 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students; $6 Wesleyan students, youth under 18

Pre-concert talk at 7pm by Associate Professor of Music and Medieval Studies Jane Alden.  

“[Beethoven’s] combination of beauty and unpredictability, extreme emotional depth and intellectual rigour, across so many genres, is unsurpassed and probably always will be.”
—BBC Music

Listen local! The Wesleyan Music Department community celebrates the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) with an inspired, diverse mix of traditional and experimental tributes. The program will include the Quintet in E-Flat for Piano and Winds, Op. 16; Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69; and Grosse Fugue for string quartet, Op. 133; selections by Tyagaraja; as well as pieces written as homages by graduate student composers: Aliya Ultan's "Ode" and Stuart Wheeler's "Harp."

Featuring Private Lessons Teachers Libby Van Cleve on oboe, Charlie Suriyakham on clarinet, Robert Hoyle on French horn, Gary Bennett on bassoon, Julie Ribchinsky on cello, and Carolyn Halsted and Yvonne Troxler on piano; the West End String Quartet—Sarah Washburn and Marianne Vogel on violin, Wesleyan Chamber Music Ensemble Director John Biatowas on viola, and Anne Berry on cello; and Wesleyan South Indian music faculty—vocalist and Adjunct Associate Professor of Music B. Balasubrahmaniyan and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music David Nelson on mridangam.

Leif Inge’s 9 Beet Stretch
Monday, February 17 through Thursday, February 20, 2020 from 9am to 10pm
Friday, February 21, 2020 from 9am to 5pm
Wesleyan University Library, 252 Church Street, Middletown
FREE!

Stop by the first floor to browse books about Ludwig van Beethoven and experience Leif Inge’s sound installation "9 Beet Stretch" (2002), which stretches Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony into a 24-hour recording.

Image: portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler from 1820.