David Feurzeig

Solo Performance

My lecture-recitals blend performance, research, and education, using programs that combine new and old, challenging and accessible, “serious” and popular music in unusual ways. Below is a list of performances, a recording of one lecture-recital, and a collection of representative programs.

List of Performances

Solo recitals & featured solo performances, 2000-2017
  1. Inaugural concert of Alumni House: Music of 1926. UVM, 2/20/17
  2. Tod Machover, “Three Hyperetudes” UVM Recital Hall, 10/14/16
  3. Gershwin, Concerto in F and I Got Rhythm Variations (soloist). Tifereth Israel Orchestra, San Diego, CA 6/15-17, 2014
  4. “Entertainment in F” (Alex Wick, premiere) broadcast on VPR multiple times Fall 2013
  5. Solo recital, Pelican Cove, Sarasota FL 4/2/12
  6. Ragtime and Stride (solo concert) Brick Church Music Series, Williston VT 12/16/11
  7. From (to) Jazz, with Love (solo recital) UVM Recital Hall 9/7/11
  8. Jazzing the Avant-Garde. Surroundings Art Gallery, Sandwich, NH 8/4/11
  9. Simultaneous Worlds II. RedNote New Music Festival, Illinois State University 3/17/11
  10. Suite and Low-Down. J-B Piano, San Rafael, CA 7/10/10
  11. Classic and Crossover. Surroundings Art Gallery, Sandwich, NH 7/1/10
  12. Suite and Low-Down. Christ Church Presbyterian Red Chair Series, Burlington 5/23/10
  13. “Classic” Ragtime and Ragging the Classics. University of Maine, Orono 2/12/10
  14. Double Suite in B-flat. Smith College, Northhampton, MA 11/9/09
  15. Ragtime and Stride. Broadcast performance on “Vermont Notes,” WCVT 9/13/09
  16. Ragtime and Stride. University of Vermont 9/13/09
  17. Ragtime and Stride. Allenwood Manor, South Burlington, VT 9/11/09
  18. Ragtime and Stride. Shelburne Bay Center, Shelburne, VT 9/10/09
  19. Ragtime and Stride. Wake Robin, Shelburne, VT 9/8/09
  20. Ragtime and Stride. Cathedral Square, Burlington, VT 9/2/09
  21. Ragtime and the Classical Tradition. Surroundings Art Gallery, Sandwich, NH 7/15/09
  22. Honky Tonk in the Concert Hall. Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival 7/6/09
  23. Two Double Suites. University of Illinois 10/27/2008
  24. Two Double Suites. University of Vermont 9/14/08
  25. Two Double Suites. Preview/interview broadcast 9/14/08
  26. Two Double Suites. Previe/Interview Broadcast, WCVT Vermont, 9/14/08
  27. Two Double Suites. Live Studio Broadcast, Vermont Public Radio 9/11/08
  28. PostCard Art. Illinois State University Friends of the Arts Benefit 3/1/08
  29. Faculty Showcase Recital. Illinois State University 2/12/08
  30. Two Double Suites. Illinois State University 1/22/08
  31. Bartok’s use of “Bulgarian” Dance Rhythm. Folklore Village 60th Festival of Midwinter Traditions, Ridgeway, WI 12/31/07
  32. Bach and Ragtime. Atria Meridian Center, Lantana, FL 12/22/07
  33. Two Double Suites. Pelican Cove Pavilion, Sarasota, FL 12/19/07
  34. Minority Scholarship Benefit Recital. Illinois State University, 3/1/07
  35. Benefit performance. 17th Annual MLK Celebration, Illinois Wesleyan University 1/28/07
  36. Benefit performance. Annual MLK Dinner of the NAACP chapter, Normal IL 1/20/07
  37. Faculty Showcase Recital. Illinois State University 9/26/06
  38. Lecture-recital. Benz Community Center, Sandwich, NH 8/8/06
  39. Lecture-recital. Chintakarn Music Institute, Bangkok, Thailand 7/15/06
  40. Lecture-recital. Payap University Chiang Mai, Thailand 7/13/06
  41. Bulgarian Dances and Various Fancies. Guest Artist Recital, Smith College, MA 9/19/03
  42. Bulgarian Dances and Various Fancies. Illinois State University 11/19/02
  43. A Ragtime Recital. Illinois State University 1/22/02
  44. Ragtime & Stride, Beethoven & Bartok, or Ludwig van: the African connection?? Grand Valley State University, MI 3/1/ 01
  45. Scintillating Syncopations Mornings with the Professors Series, Bloomington, IL 5/5/00
  46. Vienna I & II: from Mozart to Modernism. Illinois State University 2/15/00

Two Double Suites

Program note

This program grew out of a dissatisfaction with the ossified traditions of classical music presentation. I wanted to use unusual juxtapositions to challenge the formulaic structure of the classical concert, hoping to jog listeners out of rigid assumptions with regard to genre, style, and epoch—putting them in an open frame of mind where they could construct fresh ways of hearing what is familiar and ways to make sense out of what is novel.

The dance suite was the dominant instrumental form of the Baroque, representing the apex of Baroque internationalism. In the context of 18th-C Europe, the suite was riotously multi-cultural, each of its obligatory four dances representing a different country. Today, ironically, the effect of a complete suite in concert is more likely to be one of homogeneity: given the vastly greater variety of music constantly available to contemporary listeners, it can be hard to maintain focus through performance of a half-dozen dances of the same period, by the same composer, for the same instrument, in the same key.

In order to recapture something of the reception Bach could have expected, and to give each piece in the suite, like a gem, its own setting, I interleave the movements of Bach’s Partita no. 1 with American vernacular dance pieces, all in the Partita’s key of B-flat. The fresh context brings Bach down from his pedestal, allowing his humor and swing to come through—especially for non-specialist audiences who may be primed to take Bach deadly seriously. Conversely, the ragtime pieces, which come from an oft-deprecated folk/entertainment culture, hold their own among the Bach movements. I find that inviting audiences to discover these connections themselves is more engaging than sermonizing on the legitimacy of early African-American popular music or the hipness of Bach.

Bartok’s Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm, the magnificent capstone of Mikrokosmos, present the opposite problem. Each movement is intensely individual, but so brief that its effect is blurred and diluted when the set is played in straight succession. To space them out, I interweave the dances with an assortment of mostly 20th-C pieces, of diverse styles but all chosen for their apt character and tonality. Between each pairing I discuss Bartok’s own evolving relationship with folk traditions as it progressed from narrow nationalism to a breathtakingly expansive involvement with music of the entire world.

Double Suite no. 1 in B-flat: Bach Partita no. 1 & American Dances

Live concert recording, University of Vermont, 2008
Program J.S. Bach: Partita no. 1, BWV 825
Prelude
Interlude: about this program
Allemande
Interlude: George Gershwin, Prelude no. 1
Courante
Interlude: Scott Joplin, Euphonic Sounds
Sarabande
Interlude: William Bolcom, The Graceful Ghost Rag
Menuets I & II
Interlude: Eubie Blake, Charleston Rag
Gigue
Audio recording Prelude
 Interlude: about this program
 Allemande
 Interlude: Gershwin, Prelude no. 1
 Corrente
 Interlude: Joplin, Euphonic Sounds
 Sarabande
 Interlude: Bolcom, The Graceful Ghost Rag
 Menuets I & II; Blake, Charleston Rag ;Gigue (played continuously)

Double Suite no. 2: Bulgarian Dances & Barbarian Interludes

Live concert recording, University of Vermont, 2008
Program
Bulgarian Rhythm no. 1 (Mikrokosmos 117) Bela Bartok
Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm (Mikrokosmos nos. 148-153) Bela Bartok
Dance no. 1 (4+2+3)
Interlude: Olivier Messiaen, La colombe (The Dove)
Dance no. 2 (2+2+3)
Interlude: Joseph Lamb, A Ragtime Nightingale
Dance no. 3 (2+3)
Interlude: David Feurzeig, Bélának a Blues-a
Dance no. 4 (3+2+3)
Interlude: George Gershwin, Impromptu in Two Keys
Dance no. 5 (2+2+2+3)
Interlude: J.S. Bach, Prelude & Fugue no. 4, WTC I
Dance no. 6 (3+3+2)

Concert video recording Bulgarian Rhythm no. 1 & intro talk
 Bulgarian Dance no. 1 (Mikrokosmos 148)
 Interlude: La colombe (Messiaen) & talk
 Bulgarian Dance no. 2 (Mikrokosmos 149)
 Interlude: Ragtime Nightingale (Lamb) & talk
 Bulgarian Dance no. 3 (Mikrokosmos 150)
 Interlude: Belanak a Blues-a (Feurzeig) & talk
 Bulgarian Dance no. 4 (Mikrokosmos 151)
 Interlude: Impromptu in Two Keys (Gershwin) & talk
 Bulgarian Dance no. 5 (Mikrokosmos no. 152)
 Interlude: Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor (Bach)
 Bulgarian Dance no. 6 (Mikrokosmos no. 153)
 Encore: Stride Rite (Feurzeig)

Double Suite no. 1: video recording

Here is another performance of Double Suite no. 1, with video (but on electronic keyboard). From the Constructionism 2010 conference in Paris. Opens in a new page (95 MB; may take time to load).

Representative programs

click on thumbnails for links or larger images