ARKADELPHIA — Ouachita Baptist University’s Division of Music will host cellist and Young Artist Competition winner Alexander Hersh on Monday, Sept. 16, at 7:30 p.m. in McBeth Recital Hall. Pianist Mary Scott Goode will accompany Hersh. The Young Artist performance is free and open to the public.
Hersh is a first prize winner of the 2019 Young Artist Competition, which was held earlier this summer in Greenwood, Ind. The national contest is sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs and features performers from all over the United States.
“Ouachita has been hosting the Young Artist Winner for over a decade,” said Dr. Gary Gerber, dean of the School of Fine Arts and professor of music. “Each year we as a community have the opportunity to hear an outstanding musician. It is also good for our students to see and hear performers who are only a few years older than them.”
Hersh, a New England Conservatory graduate, also holds a Master of Music in cello performance from his alma mater. Hersh has performed as a soloist with the Boston Pops and Houston Symphony, and he has performed the complete string quartets of Béla Bartok and Alban Berg, as well as much of the chamber music canon, at music festivals worldwide.
Hersh is co-artistic director of NEXUS Chamber Music, a collective of international artists committed to stimulating interest in chamber music. He has received top prizes at competitions worldwide including the 2019 Astral Artists National Auditions, New York International Artists Association Competition, Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra, Hellam Young Artist Competition and Jefferson Symphony International Young Artists Competition, among others.
Goode holds a Master of Music in piano performance from Florida State University. She is a professor of music at Texarkana College where she teaches piano and music appreciation. She also has served on the music faculty at the University of Arkansas, University of Rhode Island, University of Tampa and Hillsborough Community College, Tampa.
Goode accompanies the Texarkana Regional Chorale, Texas Two-Year College All-State Choir, various All-State and All-Region choirs and is a founder and principal keyboard player with the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra. She also holds national certification through the Music Teachers National Association and was the recipient of the 2009 Texarkana College Endowed Chair Award for Teaching Excellence.
Hersh will open the concert with a performance of “Solo Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major” by J.S. Bach. He will then perform “Sonata for Cello and Piano in C minor, Op. 6” by Samuel Barber and “Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, L. 135” by Claude Debussy. Next he will perform “Two Pieces for Cello and Piano (1899)” by Anton Webern. To conclude the concert, Hersh will perform “Romance for Cello and Piano, Op. 69” by Gabriel Fauré and “Lamentatio (1998)” by Giovanni Sollima.
For more information, contact Dr. Gary Gerber at (870) 245-5128 or gerberg@obu.edu.