Independent Music

Aeternalis Voyage: a journey of beautiful sound and emotion
Laura Wilcox, viola and Jose R. Lopez, piano

Franz Schubert (1797-1828):
"Winterreise", D 911
the "Arpeggione" Sonate in A minor
for viola and piano
Jindrich Feld (1925-): Sonate pro Violu a Klavir (1955)

LAURA WILCOX, violist
"an eloquent premiere...by the brilliant Laura Wilcox as soloist." - William Littler (the Toronto Star)
"Tentative" is certainly not the word to describe viola soloist Laura Wilcox. Wilcox has a stunning and throaty sound" - Alan Becker (the Sun-Sentinel)
"Violist Laura Wilcox was a committed soloist, bringing a kaleidoscopic range of colors and sterling musicianship to this difficult yet communicative music."
- Lawrence A. Johnson (the Sun-Sentinel)

Canadian-American violist, LAURA WILCOX has performed throughout Canada, the United States and in Europe and South America as a recitalist, soloist with orchestras, and in numerous chamber ensembles. A passion and commitment for unveiling the obscure, reviving the "living" classics, and in premiering new musical works, Laura has collaborated in many crossover musical and artistic ventures with international performers and composers from North America, Asia, Europe, Central and South America. She studied at SUNY-Purchase School of Music in New York and McGill University in Montreal. Her teachers include Charles Castleman, Emanuel Vardi, Lorand Fenyves, Charles Castleman, and Paul Rolland. Further studies include coaching with members of the Emerson, Juilliard, Cleveland, and Orford string quartets. She has received awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Chalmers Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council and ASTA (American String Teachers Association). She is a founding member/director of the ArtSouth Ensemble: chamber music incorporating the visual and performing arts.Laura is a faculty member of FIU, Florida International University and is the principal violist for the Florida Grand Opera and Miami City Ballet orchestras. Laura has recorded for SNE records, CBC radio/television, Vermont Public Radio, Public Radio in South Florida and the Tampa Bay Area, and York University Record Labels.

JOSÃ‰ R. LÃ“PEZ, pianist
"Engaging, insightful pianism, delightful touches of character to virtually every measure, without ever overdoing it." - Tim Smith (Sun-Sentinel)
"Impeccable musicianship, elegance of line, and delicately sculptured phrasing to the ornate piano writing.
- Lawrence Budmen (Coral Gables Gazzette)
"Clarity of mind and affinity for Schubert and Beethoven...beautifully etched Bagatelles, Op. 126."
- James Roos (the Miami Herald)

JOSÃ‰ R. LÃ“PEZ is currently the Acting Coordinator of the Keyboard Department at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, and has been on the piano faculty since 1997. JosÃ© has performed throughout the United States, Italy and Central and South America with orchestras, solo recitals, and chamber groups in concert halls, summer festivals such as the Music Festival of the Hamptons in New York and the Killington Music Festival in Vermont. Active throughout South Florida, he has been a featured performer in the Florida International University Festival; FIU's New Music Miami Festival, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, Coral Gables' Mainly Mozart Series, and other regional festivals. A versatile pianist and an enthusiastic performer of chamber music, JosÃ© was a founding member of the Dalbergi Trio, is a member of FIU's resident new music ensemble, the Nodus Ensemble. He is the pianist of the ArtSouth Ensemble: chamber music incorporating the visual and performing arts. JosÃ© is active performing, recording new and old obscure works with various instruments and for solo piano. His interests in contemporary music feature frequent world premieres and collaborations with composers. JosÃ© is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Music, where he studied with Dr. Rosalina Sackstein, a former pupil of Claudio Arrau and Isabelle Vengerova. He has recorded for SNE and Innova record labels.

COMPOSER: JINDRICH FELD:
Jindrich Feld was born in Prague on February 19, 1925. He studied violin and viola with his father, a renowned professor of violin at the Prague Conservatory. Though he enjoyed playing chamber music, his lie-long interest has been cntered in musical composition. His formal training in composition was at h Prague Conservatory and at the Academy of Music, where he graduated in 1952. In the same year he earned the Ph. D from the Charles University in Prague with majors in musicology, aesthetics and philosophy. His works and commissions are in demand throughout the world and he has been a guest lecturer at major music schools throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia. He is a recipient of numerous prizes in composition from Czechoslovakia and other countries and has been active as a key member of several committees and organizations in Czechoslovakia, and was the head of music for the Czecholslovak Radio from 1990-1992. The Sonata for Viola and Piano was composed in 1955, Jindrich Feld's first creative period. This sonata reflects his ties with the tradition of European and especially Czech music. The Viola sonata is a demanding, both lyrical and dramatic work: The First movement is in sonata form, while the Second movement in ternary form. Like the fist, the third movement is a sonata form, but very rhythmic. In this movement the main theme of the Second movement reappears before the vivid coda with its lyricism. The Sonata was awarded a prize in the "Great Jubilee Competition of the Guild of Czechoslovak Composers in 1955".
(notes: JIndrich Feld)

COMPOSER: FRANZ SCHUBERT:
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)- Austrian composer from Vienna. He was the only great Viennese master native to the city. A master in orchestral, piano, chamber music and songs- his rich vein of melody and his expressive harmony reached the heart of text in a way that music before him had not known and is still, 300 years later still reaches every heart who listens to his music. The "Arpeggione' Sonata in A minor, d. 821 was composed in November 1824 for Vicenz Schuster, apparently the only professional exponent of the short-lived instrument- the arpeggione. The arpeggione is a hybrid stringed instrument, which has six strings, tuned in the manner of a guitar, and is bowed like a viola da gamba. Cast as a 3-movement work, the Artpeggione" Sonata's melodic makeup embodies the realm of the lied (song). The accompanying role of the pianist echoes a true lied partnership, as seen in the work's vocal overtones.
Schubert started his song cycle "Winterreise" D. 911 to the poems of Wilhelm Muller sometime during the autumn of 1826 and completed them in 1827. He wrote these songs in bouts of health and serious illness (syphilis).The six songs in this recording represent six different stages in the protagonist's journey.
(notes: Jose R. Lopez and Laura Wilcox)

Track List:
1. Franz Schubert; Winterreise, D 911; Gute Nacht
2. Winterreise- Die Post
3. Winterreise- Auf dem Flusse.
4. Winterreise-Der Sturmische Morgen
5. Winterreise-Tauschung
6. Winterreise-Der Leiermann
7. Jindrich Feld; Sonate pro violu a Klavir (1955), I, molto modera
8. II. Adagio
9. III. Allegro
10. Franz Schubert: Arpeggione Sonate in a minor; I. Allegro moderat
11. II. Adagio
12. III. Allegretto

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CLASSICAL: Traditional
SOLO INSTRUMENTAL