March 12, 2003
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
AMHERST, Mass.-Amherst College will present "The Death of Victor Hartmann," an original staging of vocal and piano music of Modest Musorgsky, on Saturday, March 29, at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, March 30, at 3 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall at Amherst College. Both performances will be free and open to the public.
Musorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, interwoven with his Nursery Songs and selections from Pictures at an Exhibition, will be performed in a staging created by world-renowned set and costume designer John Conklin, assistant artistic director of the Glimmerglass Opera, and Jenny Kallick, professor of music at Amherst College, with lighting design by Michael Baumgarten, visiting lecturer in music at Amherst College. The drama evokes 19th-century Russia in scenes drawn from the world of Victor Hartmann, the artist whose sudden death inspired the composition of Pictures at an Exhibition. Bass Valerian Ruminski, who has appeared with companies such as the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera, will sing the two song cycles in an arrangement by composer Richard Beaudoin, and the performance will also feature cellist Matt Haimovitz, clarinetist Patrick Messina, violinist Christoph Franzgrote, pianist William Hicks and actor Michael Rhoton.
Further information is available at 413/542-2195. The Amherst College Concert Office has a Website at www.amherst.edu/~concerts.
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