The Eka and Kae Duo, two members of the Baylor University music faculty, will perform a recital on Sunday, November 14, beginning at 6:00 p.m. in Roxy Grove Hall. Eka Gogichashvili is Associate Professor of Violin, and Kae Hosoda-Ayer is Associate Professor of Piano. Their program, “Georgia in My Thoughts,” presents works for violin and piano by twentieth-century Georgian composers.
Opening the recital is Scherzo by Vazha Azarashvili (b. 1936), one of the foremost classical composers who emerged in the former Soviet Union in the 1960s.
Then Dr. Gogichashvili and Dr. Hosoda-Ayer will play Sonata for Violin and Piano by Andria Balanchivadze (1906-1992), a Georgian composer whose older brother was the famous ballet choreographer, George Balanchine.
Also to be heard are Five Miniatures for Violin and Piano by Giya Kancheli (1935-2019). A striking feature of this composer’s music is its use of silence as a means of heightening the listener’s impressions and responses. Many of the composer’s other defining traits, including modal tunes, bass drones, and wide dynamic extremes, are derived from Georgian folk music.
The program will close with Sonata for Violin and Piano from 1969 by Otar Taktakishvili (1924-1989), a prominent composer who, in 1942, wrote the official Anthem of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Taktakishvili studied at the Tbilisi Conservatory under Andria Balanchivadze, and his early influences were Georgian folk music, composers of the classical era, and such living composers as Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich. In his senior year at the conservatory, he had the opportunity to study with Dmitri Shostakovich, which led to a long-standing collaboration and friendship.
This faculty recital by the Eka and Kae Duo is free of charge and open to the public. It is also available for livestreaming at baylor.edu/music/live.