Monday May 26, 2008
(Memorial Day)
1pm

The Performing Arts & Lecture Series (PALS)
Presents:

A Free Recital
(Donations to PALS are welcome.)

Duo violists
Scott Slapin & Tanya Solomon

Program:

Adagio and Fugue from the 1st Unaccompanied Sonata by J. S. Bach (originally for violin)

• Soliloquy
• Tune
• Reflection

Canons and Dances by Patrick Neher

Mvts. I and II from Soundscape No. 1 for Solo Viola by Frank Proto

• Adagio
• Rhythmic

A Day in Acadia by David Rimelis

• Fred’s Lounge 8 am
• Lunch at Mulate’s
• Midnight at El Sido’s Zydeco & Blues Bar

Scott Slapin and Tanya Solomon, violas

All works on this program (except for the Bach) were written for Scott and Tanya.

Duo violists Scott Slapin and Tanya Solomon have premiered and recorded several new important works for the repertory for two violas. They have worked closely with contemporary American composers including Gerald Busby, Richard Lane, Patrick Neher, Frank Proto and David Rimelis, and their debut CD Sketches from the New World: American Viola Duos in the 21st Century was hailed as "absolutely brilliant" in Strad Magazine.

Scott and Tanya are former artists in residence at the Montalvo Arts Center in California, and they have been members of the orchestras in New Orleans, Louisville and São Paulo, Brazil. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they participated in benefit concerts from California to New York City (with the New York Philharmonic), and they released a CD Recital On The Road: What We Did On Our Summer Evacuation. Scott and Tanya met while touring with the Philadelphia Virtuosi and they started out together in Tennessee as principal violists of the Knoxville and Chattanooga Symphonies.

Tanya Solomon is a native of Geneva, Switzerland. She holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM) and Northwestern University (MM), and her teachers have included Michael Tseitlin, Jeffrey Irvine and Peter Slowik. Tanya was a member of the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas and the Chicago Civic Orchestra under such conductors as Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez. In 1995 she was a finalist in the International William Primrose Viola Competition, and during the latter half of the 1990's she was a frequent participant in the Spoleto Festivals of Italy and Charleston, South Carolina. She plays a viola made by the House of Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland.

Scott Slapin is a native of New Jersey. At the age of eighteen, he was one of the youngest graduates in the history of the Manhattan School of Music. He has given scores of recitals, and his solo CDs have received critical acclaim in such journals as The American Record Guide, Strad and Fanfare. He was the first person to record the complete set of J. S. Bach's Unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas for Violin on viola.

Scott was commissioned to write the required solo piece for the 2008 International William Primrose Competition, and he has composed several chamber works featuring the viola, which can be heard on an Eroica Classical Recordings CD Reflection, performed by members of the Slapin family. For the upcoming season, Scott will be playing with the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. He plays a viola made by Hiroshi Iizuka.