Dear Violists,

We have a schedule for Viola Day!!!! And the countdown begins!

Don’t forget to pay your dues in advance so that you can zip through the registration line!

Utah Viola Society

Viola Day!!!!2.0  November 1, Gardner Hall, University of Utah

 9:00 Thompson Hall, first floor.  Registration and visit exhibitors.

10:00 Dumke Recital Hall.  Master class with Roger Chase, followed by Q&A

12:00 Pizza Lunch. Free for all attendees!

12:45 Meet your Maker.  An exhibition of local luthiers and demonstration of their instruments, followed by the opportunity for instrument trials.

1:15 Lecture/performance.  A presentation on scordatura in viola repertoire, given by Leslie Richards, DMA candidate at the University of Utah.

2:30 Viola Quintets, Old and New.  The Fry Street Quartet with violists Brant Bayless and Roger Chase.  The unofficial world premiere of “White Roses”, written by Christopher Burns for Brant Bayless and Anne Francis Bayless.

3:00 Viola Ensemble Concert.  Featuring ensembles from area students as well as the Utah Symphony viola section.

I just want to say a loud and clear THANK YOU to everyone who has responded to our membership drive!

THANK YOU!!! From the bottom of my alto range heart, thank you!

Membership is a Bargain. Yes, a Bargain with Capital B.

Your yearly dues will gain you FREE entrance to Viola Day!!!!2.0 events on November 1, 2014.  That’s FREE masterclass with Roger Chase, FREE admittance to a discussion about instrument making, FREE admittance to a very interesting Lecture/Performance by Leslie Richards (more to come about that event!), FREE admittance to a recital of The Fry Street Quartet featuring special guest artists Roger Chase and Utah Symphony Principal Violist Brant Bayless. And FREE admittance to our signature Viola Ensembles recital featuring students David Dalton, students from Weber State and Utah State University, and viola section members of the Utah Symphony.

OK, so that sounds amazing. BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET!
Your Utah Viola Society Membership will also gain you FREE admittance to Roger Chase’s Recital on November 2. (Be still my heart!) This recital is part of Roger Chase’s The Tertis Project which is an ongoing endeavor devoted to performing and recording works by important U.K. composers of the last century which were written for the legendary violist Lionel Tertis. He will be performing works by Sir Arthur Bliss, Sir Arnold Bax, Benjamin Dale, and York Bowen. Mr. Chase performs on Lionel Tertis’s Monatagnana viola, so you will also have the chance to see and hear this amazing viola. (FREE!!!)

If you join in advance of Viola Day!!!!2.0 you will have ease of entry into all of these Utah Viola Society events.  Let’s do the math: Viola Day!!!2.0 entrance fee is $10. The Roger Chase Tertis Project Recital admission is $15. If you are a student and join at the UVS student rate of $10/year you have saved $5.

We can’t be a healthy and vibrant viola society without members. Without members urging us forward we can’t challenge ourselves to bring you the kinds of Viola Days and Viola Weekends that all of us want to be part of. Thank you so very much to those of you who have joined the Utah Viola Society.

You can pay dues online or send a check. We’re not picky. You don’t even have to be a violist to join, if you love the viola or even love a violist that is reason enough!

Just a taste:

And here’s your first taste. Hey everyone, this is Roger Chase. Roger Chase, meet everyone!

The fabulous violist Roger Chase will be joining us for Viola Day 2014. The first event features him in recital with the Fry Street Quartet on October 31 in Logan. On Saturday he will be presenting a masterclass for the Utah Viola Society on November 1, and on Sunday evening November 2 will play a recital of English Music entitled The Tertis Project with pianist Michiko Otaki.

Among other works he will be performing the Sir Arthur Bliss sonata, an overlooked gem in the viola repertoire. More details to come, but in the meantime give this a listen, and then join us for Viola Weekend 2014!

When I’ve been asked what I’m playing on Viola Day 2014 and I reply that I am playing the York Bowen Fantasy for 4 Violas, the most common response that I receive is a quizzical expression followed by the question, “Who?” York Bowen  was an English composer, born in 1884; a contemporary of Arnold Bax and Benjamin Dale, with whom he was close friends. He is often referred to  as the “English Rachmaninoff; ” he wrote romantic-style music much after a time when it was considered fashionable and remained true to his own voice and style throughout his life. His talent as a pianist was recognized as a young age, and he began composition early in his life as well. Camille Saint-Saens hailed him as “the most remarkable of the young British composers.”  He had a long career at the Royal Academy of Music, teaching both piano and composition. He was also an accomplished violist and horn player, and evidently could play most instruments for which he composed.  He was the first pianist to record Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto.  After his death, most of his music went out of print and performances of his music were rare.

Lionel Tertis was responsible for many of Bowen’s viola works. In Tertis’s autobiography “My Viola and I” he writes, “From the beginning of my campaign to create a library of solo viola music I begged for viola compositions from the younger English composers; and great is my debt to them. Such was their response that the British library of viola music looked like becoming the most extensive in the world.” York Bowen’s viola concerto was written with Lionel Tertis in mind, and the two Viola Sonatas are also dedicated to Lionel Tertis, works which York Bowen and Lionel Tertis often performed together. The Fantasy Quartet for 4 Violas Op. 41 #1 (1907) was written for Lionel Tertis to perform with his students. Tertis includes in his autobiography a review of a 1972 concert (on the occasion of Tertis’s 96th birthday!) that included a performance of the Fantasy Quartet which read, “Tertis persuaded York Bowen to write a Fantasie for a string quartet of violas, which was played in this concert. The bass line cannot descend farther than C below Middle C, but the limitation is barely perceived, so rich and multifarious are the textures available. This is a finely imagined movement in several sections, often twilit and nostalgic (with a touch of modality that doffs the cap to Debussy’s quartet), worth hearing several times.”

If you would like to hear this finely imagined movement live, join Utah Symphony viola section members Brant Bayless, Roberta Zalkind, Scott Lewis, and Julie Edwards on March 22, 2014 as they present the York Bowen Fantasy Quartet as part of V!ola Day 20!4!!!