Faculty Violinist In Program Of Favorites

by Richard Veit

Bruce Berg, professor of violin at Baylor University, will present "Violin Favorites" during a faculty recital at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, in Roxy Grove Hall. Joining him the performance will be Vincent DeVries, visiting assistant professor of piano and director of collaborative piano.
The program--presenting some of the most popular short pieces and encores in the violin repertoire--will include Pablo de Sarasate's arrangement of the Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, by Frédéric Chopin, the Joseph Szigeti setting of Alexander Scriabin's Étude in Thirds, Op. 8, No. 10, and three of the unaccompanied Caprices, Op. 1, by Niccolò Paganini.
Berg also will perform five familiar showpieces by Fritz Kreisler: Praeludium and Allegro, Gypsy Caprice, Schön Rosmarin, Liebesleid, and Liebesfreud, as well as Ernest Bloch's Baal Shem, the slow movement from Van Denman Thompson's Sonata in F major, and the fiery Scherzo tarantelle, Op. 16, by Henryk Wieniawski. The program will conclude with Bedrich Smetana's From the Homeland and the Waltz scherzo, Op. 34, of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Berg holds his bachelors, masters and doctorate from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. He studied violin and chamber music with such renowned instructors as Dorothy Delay, Joseph Szigeti, Nathan Milstein, Sándor Végh, Lilian Fuchs, William Lincer and Felix Galimir. He has served as concertmaster and soloist with the Brandenburg Collegium, the Bach Ensemble, Concert Royal, Ars Musica, the Mozartean Players, the Ensemble for Early Music, the Manticore Orchestra and Musica Aeterna. He also has appeared as violinist with the English Baroque Soloists, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Netherlands Radio Orchestra, Aston Magna, the American Symphony Orchestra, Banchetto Musicale, St. Luke's Orchestra and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.
The recital is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at (254) 710-3991.