NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University music faculty Chialing Hsieh and Paul Christopher will present a recital on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.
Hsieh and Christopher will perform “Patterns in a Chromatic Field,” a 1980 composition by Morton Feldman.
Feldman was member of the New York School of composers, which included Earle Brown, John Cage and Christian Wolff. He was a pioneer of indeterminate music and contributed to notational innovations. “Patterns in a Chromatic Field” is an example of his late style. It is rhythmically notated in minute detail presenting considerable challenges for the performers. It is an example of Feldman’s quiet, slowly evolving music and is written on a large time scale. The work will last approximately 100 minutes with no intermission, and audience members are encouraged to sit close to the stage due the primarily soft dynamics that Feldman calls for.
Christopher received his Bachelor of Music Education from the New England Conservatory of Music and his Master of Music in Cello Performance from the University of Memphis. His original articles have been published in American String Teacher, Bass World, The Jacques Offenbach Society Newsletter and Strings.
From 1989 to 2004 he was Principal Cello of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Shreveport Opera, and a member of the Premier String Quartet. Simultaneously, from 1993 to 1999 he also served as Adjunct Lecturer of Low Strings at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. As a member of the Nashville String Machine, Christopher has recorded with artists such as Faith Hill, Ricky Skaggs, Bruce Springsteen and George Strait.
In 2005, Christopher joined the string faculty at Northwestern State, where he serves as associate professor of Cello and Music Theory.
An avid performer of contemporary music, Hsieh is devoted to promoting new piano solo and chamber works. Hsieh has been a featured pianist on seven CDs for the Centaur, Innova, Enharmonic and Ballpark labels. She joined NSU’s faculty in 2016 as an assistant professor of collaborative piano. In the summer, she is the piano instructor at the Lutheran Summer Music Festival and Academy and the Sounds of Summer Institute. Hsieh earned her bachelor’s degree from the National Taipei University of the Arts and a master’s and doctorate in piano performance at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.
A sought after collaborative pianist, Hsieh has performed with members of the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minnesota, and Memphis. She has performed with the faculty of Julliard, Northwestern University, New England Conservatory, University of Cincinnati, and Arizona State University.
For more information, call (318) 357-5802.
