Wilson Music Series plans diverse concert blending piano, organ and saxophone

Pianist Natasha Ulyanofsky and saxophonist Max Schwimmer will perform a lively concert featuring jazz, Baroque, tango, ragtime, and klezmer, concluding with  “Sabre Dance” by Aram Khachaturian. The second of four concerts in the 2017 Jean C. Wilson Music Series, the performance will be held on Sunday, Feb. 12, at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport.

The Ulyanovksy-Schwimmer Duo shares a love of diverse music and the expressive possibilities in blending saxophone and piano/organ. The duo’s repertoire draws from Western classical music, the Great American Songbook, and world music traditions such as klezmer and tango.

Ulyanovsky is a graduate of Odessa Conservatory and has studied at the Moscow Conservatory, at Speyer Cathedral, Germany, and at Queen’s College, Oxford. She has performed nationally and internationally and currently serves as the Music Director for the Beth Israel Congregation and St. Brigid Catholic Church in West Hartford.

Schwimmer is an accomplished performing musician, educator, and arts administrator. As a saxophonist, he is founding member of the Asylum Quartet, recognized for “nonstop virtuoso skills” (Times Herald-Record, New York) and “evocative, educational and refreshing concerts” (Newport Daily News, Rhode Island).

The concert starts with “Tango Suite” by Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon virtuoso and composer. Schooled in both traveling Argentine tango orchestras and European conservatories, he revolutionized the traditional Argentine tango by infusing it with classical forms and jazz harmony.

Next on the program is “Aria” by French composer Eugene Bozza for alto saxophone, followed by “Devil's Rag” by Jean Matitia, the pseudonym of French avant-garde composer Christian Lauba, who uses the alias in his ragtime and jazz writing.

            Perhaps no composer has contributed more to American music than George Gershwin. Ulyanovksy-Schwimmer  will perform “A Gershwin Fantasy” including familiar melodies from “Strike Up the Band!”, “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So” from “Porgy and Bess,”  “Oh, Lady Be Good!” “Fascinating Rhythm,” “I Got Rhythm,” and themes from “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Music for saxophone by American composer Leonard Bernstein is followed by “Oboe Concerto” by Venetian composer Alessandro Marcello, a composer in the late Baroque style, and then klezmer and swing music by Dave Tarras and Alexander Olshanetsky

The concert concludes with “Sabre Dance” by leading Soviet era composer Aram Khachaturian. The lively and virtuosic “Sabre Dance” is performed frequently and in many different instrumental combinations. This arrangement is inspired by the version recorded by violinist Jascha Heifetz.

The Jean C. Wilson Music Series is named for one of the founders and the director of the music series for 28 years. Now, under the auspices of the First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist Music Committee, the Music Series typically offers four concerts held during the winter months.
Suggested donations are $20, $10 for seniors, children and students free.

For more information about the concert go to frsuu.org/jean-wilson-music-series or call 978-465-0602 x401.