Hope College will host guest artist, violinist Martha Walvoord, in recital at 3 p.m. on Jan. 14 at Wichers Auditorium in the Nykerk Hall of Music.
The performance is free. The public is invited.
The program includes Aaron Copland's "Violin Sonata," Aaron Jay Kernis' "Air," Gabriel Faure's "Violin Sonata in A Major," Matthew Tommasini's "Fiddle States: for Two Violins" and a newly commissioned work by Tommasini, "The Procession."
Currently Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Texas at Arlington, Walvoord is an active chamber musician, soloist and recitalist. For the past four years, she was the concertmaster of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra in Muskegon.
Walvoord is a founding member of the Envision Chamber Consort, a non-profit chamber music group dedicated to new music. As a soloist, she has appeared with the West Shore Symphony Orchestra, the Holland Symphony Orchestra, the University of Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Eastern Washington State University Orchestra, and the Andrews University Orchestra in St. Joseph.
She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree and her Master of Music degree at the University of Michigan and her Bachelor of Music degree at Rice University.
Walvoord will be joined by her sister, Jennifer Walvoord, for one piece. A Hope College graduate, Jennifer Walvoord is teaching at Hope College in the spring semester while finishing her doctorate in violin performance at the University of Michigan. She is currently concertmaster of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra.
Pianist Nicholas Hutchinson will accompany Walvoord. He has performed throughout the United States as both collaborator and soloist. He has been a prizewinner in the Kosciuzko Foundation National Chopin Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
Composer Matthew Tommasini (b.1978) is a nationally recognized composer of expressive and engaging music that draws from many different influences. A recent graduate of the composition program at the University of Michigan, his works have been performed by some of the best ensembles across the country including the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, and the Riverside Symphony. He has been awarded a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and first prize in the SCI/ASCAP Commission Competition.
The Nykerk Hall of Music is located on former 12th Street between College and Columbia avenues.