Renata Knific and Rich Ridenour team in free recital
Sept. 6, 2001
KALAMAZOO -- Collaboration is the word of the day when WMU faculty violinist Renata Artman Knific joins versatile pianist Rich Ridenour, education director of the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, to present a free public performance on Sunday, Sept. 16, beginning at 4 p.m. in the Dalton Center Recital Hall.
Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra conductor Raymond Harvey will serve as narrator for Ridenour's arrangement of Earl Wild's Grand Fantasy on "Porgy and Bess," a medley of songs from the popular opera by George Gershwin.
Knific and Ridenour performed a similar program to a sold out house at this summer's Fontana Festival of Music & Art and then for a huge summer audience at Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Kalamazoo Gazette review of the Fontana Festival performance called it "...a pleasure-filled evening" and "Sheer delight."
In addition to the Gershwin work, the program will include Astor Piazzolla's Le Grand Tango; George Antheil's Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, a rarely performed work; and J.S. Bach's Violin Sonata No. 3.
Media contact: Kevin West, 616 387-4678, kevin.west@wmich.edu