Moran Quartet presents ‘Colorful Conversations’ April 13

calendar icon07 Apr 2023    

Lincoln, Neb.--The Glenn Korff School of Music’s Moran Woodwind Quartet will perform a concert titled “Colorful Conversations” on Thursday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Westbrook Music Building Rm. 119. 

The concert is free and open to the public. The concert will also be live webcast. Visit https://music.unl.edu/webcasts the day of the performance for the link.

The Moran Woodwind Quartet features four members of the woodwind faculty of the Glenn Korff School of Music:  John Bailey, flute; William McMullen, oboe; Diane Barger, clarinet; and Nathan Koch, bassoon.  

The program includes two works by American composers—Arthur Berger’s “Quartet in C Major for Woodwinds” and John Steinmetz’s “Fits and Starts.”

“The first, by Arthur Berger, was written in 1961 and dedicated to his friend and mentor Aaron Copland. The second, written in 2014, is by American bassoonist and composer John Steinmetz whom the Moran Woodwind Quintet commissioned to write a new quintet a few years ago,” Bailey said. “His imaginative quartet has places for improvised cadenzas for several members.”

Also on the program is French composer Claude Arrieu’s “Suite en Quatre” and Russian composer Nikolai Tschemberdschi’s “Concertino.”

“The four woodwinds produce considerable color combinations in these works,” Bailey said.

Formed in 1986 and named for the late John Moran, a former director of the UNL School of Music, the Moran Woodwind Quintet has toured extensively and recorded on Crystal Records and the Coronet label. The fifth member, Alan Mattingly, horn, is on leave from the ensemble while he serves as interim director of the Glenn Korff School of Music.