Juliet White-Smith, professor of viola, and guest pianist Rick Ferguson present "Mid-Century Modern" — works for viola and piano from 1939–1975 by Ulysses Kay, Florence Price and Dmitri Shostakovich.

This program features early works for viola and piano by Ulysses Kay: his Sonatine (1939) and Sonata (1942), the former a romantic work written while at student at the Berkshire Music Festival (now Tanglewood) and the latter while a student of Paul Hindemith. The three works by Florence Price are a collection of two of her vivid and luxurious art songs (including "Songs to the Dark Virgin" with poetry by Langston Hughes; and "Night," setting of a poem by Louise C. Wallace) offered here as purely instrumental works alongside a transcription of her Elfentanz, originally for violin and piano. And finally, the program closes with Dmitri Shostakovich's swan song, his Sonata for Viola and Piano (1975), which traverses his musical influences in reverse chronological order beginning with a 12-tone row around which the first movement is organized to a middle movement transcription of a scene from his unfinished opera The Gamblers, and ending with an ethereal movement quoting the opening of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Op. 27 No. 2, which served as a competition piece for Shostakovich as a young pianist.

Faculty and Guest Recital: Juliet White-Smith, viola and Rick Ferguson, piano

Timashev Recital Hall

Juliet White-Smith is an accomplished violist, an engaging and dynamic teacher, and an expert string pedagogue. With performing and professional teaching careers spanning over three and a half decades, she has performed in solo, chamber and orchestral settings throughout the United States and on tour in Europe, Asia and Africa. She has performed as a member of the Texas Chamber Orchestra, with the Houston Grand Opera and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestras, and as a two-year fellow with the Rochester Philharmonic. She is regularly engaged as an invited presenter for music organizations around the country and across the globe including as a featured presenter and master class clinician at the American String Teachers Association annual conference, for the 75th Anniversary Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and as a recitalist and presenter for conferences of the American Viola Society as well as International Viola Congresses in Montreal, South Africa, and Thailand. She has served on several occasions as adjudicator for prominent career-advancing competitions including the William Primrose International Viola Competition and the Yellow Spring Chamber Music Competition.

Juliet White-Smith

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Feb 11, 2025

Juliet White-Smith, viola · Forbes Center for the Performing Arts

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Jan 29, 2024

Faculty and Guest Recital: Juliet White-Smith, viola and Rick Ferguson, piano · The Ohio State University School of Music

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