2050 Oak Street
Sarasota
FL 34237
“A Piano Performance: Sonata in Memoriam Lloyd Arriola”
with Hermitage Fellow Robert Pound
Presented in partnership with Oak Street Stage
Friday, May 24 at 5:30pm
Oak Street Stage (entrance at 2050 Oak Street, Sarasota, FL 34237)
Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.
A chance encounter at the Metropolitan Opera in 2015 with Lloyd Arriola, a Juilliard-trained pianist, sparked a conversation for a commission to be composed by Hermitage Fellow Robert Pound. Something ambitious, evocative, and undeniably powerful was needed to satisfy Arriola’s thirst to extend the canon and Arriola couldn’t wait to perform it. When Arriola suddenly passed away in 2016 at the age of 43, this solo piano composition took on an entirely new dimension, which Pound used his residency at the Hermitage to create. Hear insights from the composer and the sweeping, complex result performed by a close friend and fellow Julliard-trained pianist, Charles Hulin IV, interpreted as only someone with such insight into the source material can.
Hermitage Fellow and composer Robert Pound’s numerous works have been featured by the Atlanta Symphony (Irrational Exuberance, 2005; Heartenings, 2011) and the Columbus Symphony which commissioned a luminous jewel lone (2002) jointly with the River Center for the Performing Arts. The St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra commissioned Pound’s Fêtes and Fireworks in celebration of its 35th anniversary (2005). His recording of The Orbit of the Soul, settings of texts by Oscar Wilde, was released in October 2018 and hailed by Fanfare as “a positively revelatory release.” Albany Records released Pound’s album of song cycles, Relics of Memory, in 2020, earning acclaim from Opera News. His music may also be heard on recordings by trumpeter Jack Sutte (The Cleveland Orchestra), Fanfare Alone (2014) and Beyond the Moon (2011). Pound has received commissions from such distinguished ensembles as the Corigliano Quartet, the Amernet Quartet, the Timaeus Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, and the Florestan Recital Project. His works have also been featured by the Verge Ensemble, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and at Fondation Bemberg. In 2011, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra commissioned Pound to compose a fanfare for the 10th anniversary of Robert Spano as Music Director and Donald Runnicles as Principal Guest Conductor. He has composed numerous works for the theater including What Passes for Comedy (Chain Theatre, NYC), The Dance of Death (Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre, NYC), and Oedipus at Colonus (Handcart Ensemble, NYC). His music has also been adapted for film by director Rick Hamilton. In March 2002, Pound was Composer-in-Residence at Columbus State University. In 2020, Pound was a Fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas and Masters and Doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School, where he was a composition student of Stephen Albert and Milton Babbitt. Also, an active conductor, Pound has appeared as guest conductor with the Atlanta Symphony, as conductor of the Verge Ensemble at the June-in-Buffalo Festival, as a Fellow at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, as Music Director of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra, and as Director of the orchestra at Dickinson College, where he is Professor of Music.
A Juilliard-trained pianist, Charles Hulin IV was a prize winner in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition and a recipient of special recognition for collaborative work in the Liszt-Garrison International Piano Competition. Hulin studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky at Juilliard and Ellen Mack at Peabody while participating in the masterclasses of Leon Fleisher. Before moving to Florida, he performed extensively in the mid-Atlantic states, frequently appearing with members of the U.S. Naval Academy Band and as a soloist for performances of the Richmond Ballet. He has participated in a wide range of festivals including University of Richmond’s Third Practice Festival of Electro-Acoustic Music, the University of Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, and the annual conference of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. The recording of his own hymn-inspired concert works, Be Thou My Vision, is available online. Currently, Dr. Hulin directs the study of piano and music theory at Southeastern University and coordinates the Lasker Summer Music Festival.