From exploring early music to premiering a new composition, the eighteenth season of the Pacific Artist Series at Fresno Pacific University—offered during the university’s 75th Anniversary year—includes a variety of performances from artists known in the Valley and around the world.
Tickets are available at the door for each of the five concerts. More information about the entire series is online at fpu.edu/pacificartist, by email at music@fresno.edu or by calling the FPU Music Office at 559-453-2267.
From Alpha to Omega—Original Piano Compositions by Walter Saul
Sunday, September 8, 4:00 p.m., McDonald Hall Atrium, main FPU campus, 1717 S. Chestnut Ave., Fresno. Admission $15 general audience, $10 FPU community, $5 FPU students.
Walter Saul, D.M.A., professor of music, is resident composer and pianist of the FPU music faculty. He has performed both books of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier from memory, and composed his own set of 24 preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys entitled From Alpha to Omega. He will perform this work in its entirety for the season’s inaugural concert.
Early Music Lecture and Concert Featuring Christa Evans, Flute, and Andrus Madsen, Harpsichord
Saturday, October 26, 6:00 p.m. (lecture), 7:30 p.m. (concert) Butler Church, 4884 E. Butler Avenue, Fresno. Admission $15 general audience, $10 FPU community, $5 FPU students.
Andrus Madsen hails from Provo Utah. He studied Organ at Brigham Young University and has degrees in harpsichord and musicology at the Eastman School of Music. He resides in Newton, MA, where he is music director at Second Church in Newton and performs on the harpsichord, clavichord and the organ as a chamber and solo performer. He is the founder/director of Newton Baroque, playing in the La Sylva and Saltarello ensembles. He is known for improvising at concerts.
As a Baroque flutist, Christa Pehl Evans has performed across the United States with early music groups, including Tempesta di Mare, Fuma Sacra, the Kingsbury Ensemble and Newton Baroque. Now teaching music history at FPU, she earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University in historical musicology with a certificate in women’s studies and completed her undergraduate degree summa cum laude in flute performance and early music at Northwestern University. Her research centers on music from late 18th-century Pennsylvania.
CASK Quartet in Concert: Cactus Sam Harris, organ/Aaron Burdick, tenor/Sherah Moore-Burdick, soprano/Krista Harris, flute
Sunday, January 26, 4:00 p.m., University Presbyterian Church, 1776 E. Roberts Avenue, Fresno. Admission $15 general audience, $10 FPU community, $5 FPU students.
Cactus Harris holds a B.A in Music Education and M.A in Conducting from California State University Fresno. He has won the San Joaquin Valley Keyboard competition and received a Biggs Fellowship recipient from the Organ Historical Society. He is director of music and organist at University Presbyterian Church, Fresno.
Aaron Burdick earned his B.A. and M.A. in Vocal Performance at California State University, Fresno. His opera performances include Carmen and La boheme, and he has soloed in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Britten’s Saint Nicholas Mass and Bruckner’s Te Deum. Burdick is also a choral director for Clovis Unified School District.
Sherah Moore-Burdick started piano at seven and voice at 16. She earned a B.A. from California State University, Fresno and a Master’s in Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, both in voice. She is the voice instructor at FPU and keeps a voice and piano studio.
Krista Harris is an FPU graduate who teaches instrumental music in the Clovis Unified School District and in her private studio. She has been active in music groups at FPU, California State University, Fresno and the community. Harris earned her Master’s in Music degree in Flute Performance at Fresno State.
Nicola Mazzanti, Piccolo, and Natasha Kislenko, Piano
Saturday, February 29, 2:00 p.m., McDonald Hall Atrium, main FPU campus, 1717 S. Chestnut Ave., Fresno. Admission $25 for all audiences.
Nicola Mazzanti is solo piccolo of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra, performing as both a flute and piccolo soloist and in chamber ensembles in Italy, Europe, the USA and Japan. He teaches at the Hochschule in Luzern, the Conservatorio in Lugano (Switzerland) and the Conservatorio Verdi in Milano. He published The Mazzanti Method for piccolo and is a graduate of the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory of Florence and D.A.M.S. (University of Arts and Music).
Natasha Kislenko, D.M.A., has won prizes at international competitions and performs extensively in Europe and the Americas. A principal pianist of the Santa Barbara Symphony, she has soloed in pieces by Shostakovich, Grieg, Clara Schumann and Mozart. Born in Moscow, Kislenko holds degrees from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Southern Methodist University and Stony Brook University. She is on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Music Academy of the West.
Faculty Emeritus Larry Warkentin Presents his Menno Simons Cantata and Premiers his Sonata for Violin and Piano
Sunday, March 22, 4:00 p.m., McDonald Hall Atrium, main FPU campus, 1717 S. Chestnut Ave., Fresno. Admission $15 general audience, $10 FPU community, $5 FPU students.
Emeritus Faculty Larry Warkentin, D.M.A., earned his B.A. degree at Tabor College, M.A. at California State University Fresno, and doctorate at the University of Southern California. A composer, pianist, choral conductor, church musician and educator, from 1962-2002 he was an FPU music professor, also chairing the department, the Humanities Division and the faculty. Warkentin’s choral works have been widely published. His hymn tunes are included in Worship Hymnal, Sing Alleluia, Hymnal a Worship Book and Covenant Hymnal.