Ora Paul Haar faculty recital March 7
calendar icon25 Feb 2022
Lincoln, Neb.—Glenn Korff School of Music Associate Professor of Saxophone Ora Paul Haar will present a faculty recital of French classical works written for saxophone on Monday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Westbrook Recital Hall Rm. 119.
The concert is free and open to the public. It will also be live webcast. Visit https://music.unl.edu/webcasts the day of the performance for the link.
“There are times when a recital program just comes together organically. When that happens, the experience is always special,” Haar said. “This year marks two milestones in my life. I turned 50, and I lost my mother. I get my musical talent from her, and it was her strength and encouragement that allowed me to be where I am today. This program features works that have held a special place in my heart.”
The recital will begin with a work that Haar has longed to play for more than 30 years, the “Sonatine” by Claude Pascal. He heard this work when he was in high school and has longed for the right time to perform it. It was another work, Claude Debussy’s “Syrinx” that he also discovered in high school.
“I had the pleasure of hearing the great flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal perform this on Nebraska Public Television when I was young,” Haar said. “I was captivated by this piece and found an excellence transcription by noted saxophonist Jean-Marie Londeix.”
The program will also feature Roger Boutry’s “Divertimento.”
“I performed this work as an undergraduate in college and fell in love with Boutry’s use of rhythm, as well as the hauntingly beautiful second movement,” Haar said.
The recital will also feature two concertos for saxophone and piano. The first half of the program will feature Henri Tomasi’s “Ballade,” and the recital will conclude with Jacques Ibert’s “Concertino de Camera.”
“The Ibert was the concerto I performed when I won my first concerto competition,” Haar said. “It is filled with all of the excitement of the jazz age in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.”
The final piece has a special place in Haar’s heart.
“I have added Eugene Bozza’s ‘Aria’ for alto saxophone and piano,” he said. “This work will be dedicated to the memory of my mother Dorothy. Not only is the work a beautiful piece of music, it was one of my mother’s favorite saxophone works that I would perform.”
Currently, UNL no longer requires face masks inside our campus buildings, but we encourage masking indoors, especially if social distancing cannot be maintained. Details, exclusions and updates can be found on the UNL website at https://covid19.unl.edu.