The Texas Tech University School of Music will host three guest artists on Sunday, September 24, 2017 at 4:00 P.M. in Hemmle Recital Hall for a recital program of works for mezzo-soprano voice, saxophone, and piano. Titled “A Touch of Blue,” this performance is free and open to the public.
Mezzo-soprano Dr. Sarah Daughtrey, saxophonist David Box, and collaborative pianist Dr. Justin Badgerow will present an afternoon of compositions that are primarily inspired by dances and song styles from North America, Central America, and South America. Traversing repertoire that makes use of all of the possible combinations of their three respective instruments, popular works and lesser-known jewels will be expressed in equal measure — including a world premiere by a faculty colleague of Dr. Daughtrey’s.
Dr. Daughtrey is Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Vocal Area at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces, NM. She brings recent experiences with Brazilian song and Brazilian Portuguese lyric diction to bear in her presentation of texts for this recital. Mr. Box is firmly connected to the vibrancy of the jazz community in Lubbock, thanks to his contributions to forming the large jazz ensemble called The Frontier Big Band and the fledgling non-profit dubbed the Lubbock Jazz and Arts Academy. Dr. Badgerow is a collaborative pianist at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, PA whose research and performance interests include Latin American music, much to the benefit of this program.
One of the quintessential works to include both saxophone and voice with piano accompaniment, Cuban composer Joaquín Nin’s Wachterlied begins the program in the collaborative spirit with all three musicians. The next few works will explore duo combinations, along with a solo piano work to usher out the first half of the recital. Three compositions by Marseille-born French composer Darius Milhaud draw heavily upon influences from jazz and Brazilian music. From the sparkling Scaramouche for saxophone and piano to the quirky little songs about a knife sharpener and an ice cream seller in his Dans les rues de Rio, the character of Rio de Janeiro is painted vibrantly thanks to Milhaud’s experiences living and working there. The Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are even given due diligence in Dr. Badgerow’s solo piano take on Milhaud’s Saudades do Brasil.
Sultry Afro-Cuban and Guatemalan texts will be expressed following the intermission, in addition to a saxophone-tinted song cycle titled Negro Lament on poems by Langston Hughes. Two compositions for saxophone and piano – Maurice Whitney’s Rumba and William Grant Still’s Romance – have become canonic staples of saxophone repertoire, and will be given poised and silken treatments by Mr. Box. Finally, the world premiere of Blue Diminuendo will feature prominently on the recital since its composer is also on faculty at NMSU with Dr. Daughtrey. Chair of the NMSU Music Department, Dr. Lon Chaffin wrote Blue Diminuendo as a three-part song cycle for mezzo-soprano, saxophone, and piano on texts penned by Larry D. Thomas, who served as the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate.
For more information about this event and other guest artist appearances at the TTU School of Music, please contact Dr. Benjamin Robinette, Publicity Coordinator for the School of Music, at (806) 834-8214 or at benjamin.robinette@ttu.edu.
