By Edgar Uriostegui
Staff Writer
On the night of Nov. 15, the College of Arts & Humanities, Department of Music, Mu Phi Epsilon Gamma Sigma and the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Composers (NACUSA-LA), hosted the Festival of New and Improvised Music’s, final show, “Bolos and Stetsons: Remembering Marshall Bialosky.”
This concert was dedicated to the memory of composer Marshall Bialosky, founder of the CSUDH music department and former president of the NACUSA-LA, serving for nearly three decades.
Bialosky was the founding chairman of both the music and art departments at Cal State Dominguez Hills. He developed an impressive list of honors and awards. His musical compositions have been performed worldwide.
The performers were Chika Inoue, saxophone, and Mary Au, piano, joined by guest performers Sally Etcheto, mezzo-soprano, Caroline Beck, bassoon, and Paul Humphreys, piano.
The artists performed works by Bialosky, Adrienne Albert, Mark Carlson, Jonathon Grasse, Deon Nielsen Price, Matthew Hetz and Carol Worthey.
Humphreys opened the show and was followed by with a performance by Beck.
Although Etcheto couldn’t perform on stage due to her absence, the producers played clips of the songs she was scheduled to perform.
The playful lyrics of Bialosky’s “Indian Summer,” “Unfortunate Coincidence” and others were enough to entertain the audience as laughter lifted the atmosphere.
Au and Inoue continued playing both solo and duet pieces for the remainder of the night. As a duet, they played three world premieres: Grasse’s “The Invisible River,” Worthey’s “Lament,” and Albert’s “Circadia.” Au played a world premiere of Hetz’s “Brand New Waltz.”
The duet’s penultimate performance was Price’s “Watts 1965: A Remembrance.” A slideshow video about the historical event was composed by CSUDH students and accompanied the piece.
Before the audience applauded, there was a moment of impulsive silence. The performance touched everyone, and there was recognition about the way the performance memorialized the 1965 events in Watts.
“I’ve attended four concerts this semester,” said Jonathan Rojas, music major. “I would go to many more concerts.”
Rojas said that the piece that stood out to him was Inoue and Au’s performance of Grasse’s “The Invisible River.”
( PICTURED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Mary Au, Mark Carlson, Chika Inoue. Au and Inoue chat with Carlson after performing his piece ” Intermezzo.”