ROBERT
BAKSA
JOURNEYS
Chamber Music for
Flute, Viola and Guitar
WORLD
PREMIERE RECORDINGS
HEIM
DUO
Annette Heim
flute
Brett
Heim guitar
CHRISTINE
BOCK viola
MS1306 ~ $14.95
Robert
Baksa is a composer of distinct personality. His music’s broad, passionate
intensity shimmers with transparent textures and melodies that exploit the full
beauty of an instrument’s sounds. One wants to hear it over and over. Baksa
rejects experimentation, cliché and gimmickry. Critics have described his work
as “resolutely and stubbornly tonal,” “embarrassingly attractive,” and
“unconventionally conventional.” They acknowledge that he is a superb
melodist, and that his works possess “impressive contrapuntal effectiveness.”
Baksa honors traditional musical approaches, yet the music overflows those forms
and vocabularies. His undeniably modern music is rewarding to perform and
elicits enthusiastic audience response. The chamber works presented here are
chamber music concertante in the very best sense. The guitar is
prominent, participating fully in the important thematic material in substantive
and sophisticated ways. The music requires the same dexterity and expressive
palette from the guitar that it does from the flute and viola.
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The
HEIM DUO has been featured on the internationally syndicated program Classical
Guitar Alive. Pan Magazine of the British Flute Society called their
performance of Robert Baksa’s Celestials
“a dazzling performance
of a dazzling work!” The Duo was invited to perform at the 2004 National Flute
Association Convention in San Diego, California, and presented a series of
concerts of American and British works for flute and guitar in London and the
surrounding area in summer of 2006. Annette
Heim holds a Master of
Music degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with
Robert Cole. She also studied with Thomas Perazzoli and Max Schoenfeld, and has
performed in master classes with Paula Robison and Eugenia Zukerman. Annette is
currently a flutist with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra in Alabama. Bret Heim holds
a Master of Music degree from the University of Arizona where he studied with
Thomas Patterson. He has performed in master classes with Eliot Fisk, Pepe
Romero, David Leisner and David Tanenbaum. Mr. Heim has performed concertos of
Rodrigo, Brouwer, Villa-Lobos, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Giuliani with orchestras
across the United States, and is currently an Associate Professor at Spring Hill
College in Mobile, Alabama.
www.HeimDuo.org
CHRISTINE
BOCK enjoys a reputation
as one of the Midwest’s most sought-after violists. She has appeared as
soloist with the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, Illinois Symphony, and South Bend
Symphony, and has performed at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall.
Ms. Bock is current principal violist of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and the
Illinois Chamber Orchestra. Also active as a pedagogue, she was an Adjunct
Assistant Professor at Millikin University for 18 years, has been on the faculty
at Knox College and Andrews University. As a member of the South Bend Symphony
String Quintet, she performed in numerous concerts for young audiences. Ms. Bock
holds a Master of Music degree in performance from Northwestern University and
is currently completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of
Illinois where she studies with Rudolf Haken.
ROBERT
BAKSA was born in New
York City to Hungarian parents but grew up and was educated in the Southwest,
graduating with a BA in Composition from the University of Arizona. Mr. Baksa
has composed nearly 600 works in a variety of forms, including two operas,
numerous art songs, choral music, keyboard works and much chamber music. His
sonatas for woodwind instruments have been particularly widely performed and his
choral works have long been a part of the repertory. Baksa’s one-act opera Red
Carnations has been
performed as an introduction to opera by the Metropolitan Opera in New York,
Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
www.robertbaksa.com
