Carlin and members of Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in concert Feb. 8

Seven musicians from the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) will join Seth Carlin, professor of music in Arts & Sciences and director of the piano program, for a performance of works by Toshi Ichiyanagi, Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert.

The free concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.

The program will open with “In a Living Memory,” a work for solo flute by Ichiyanagi (b. 1933), the acclaimed avant-garde Japanese composer. Originally commissioned for the 2001 Kobe Flute Competition, the piece will be performed by Andrea Kaplan, assistant principal flute for the SLSO.

Next will be “Andante and Variations for Two Pianos, Two Cellos and Horn, Op. 46,” an unusual, lesser-known piece by Schumann (1810-1856). First written in January 1843, “Andante and Variations” was revised for two pianos later that year. However, the original manuscript was rescued from obscurity by the composer Johannes Brahms, who convinced Schumann’s widow to allow publication.

Pianists will be Carlin and his wife, Maryse Carlin, a teacher of applied music as well as director of the Kingsbury Ensemble, one of the Midwest’s premier early music groups. Rounding out the quintet will be three SLSO musicians: cellist Sebastien Gingras; Melissa Brooks, associate principal 
cellist; and Roger Kaza, principal horn.

Concluding the program will be “Quintet in A major for Piano and Strings, Op. 114,” by Schubert (1797-1828). Popularly known as “The Trout” quintet, this sunny piece — composed in 1819 when Schubert was only 22 — features an unconventional array of instruments and is based on a 1783 poem by Christian Daniel Schubart in which a fish darts about a stream, eluding a fisherman.

Performers will be Carlin and Brooks along with SLSO violinist Joo Kim, violist Shannon Farrell Williams and Erik Harris, principal double bass.

Carlin has performed as soloist with orchestras around the world and with conductors such as Roger Norrington, Nicholas McGegan and Leonard Slatkin. In the past several years, he has performed Beethoven’s “Triple” Concerto with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque, the period-instrument orchestra.

He has played on French, Swedish, Chinese and German national television and radio and, in recent years, has given concerts in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and England. In 1992-1993, he performed the cycle of Schubert’s complete keyboard sonatas on fortepiano in both St. Louis and New York.

The performance is sponsored by the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences and by the SLSO Community Partnership Performance Program, which presents more than 300 events annually in venues throughout the area ranging from schools and churches to parks and retirement communities.

The E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall is located in the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave. (at the intersection with Delmar Boulevard).

For more information, call (314) 935-5566 or e-mail kschultz@artsci.wustl.edu.