Recital Series 2022-2023

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango presents`

Recital Series 2022-2023

The UUFD Recital Series is now in its fifthteenth season.  All recitals are held on Friday evenings at 7:00 pm in the beautiful UUFD Sanctuary with excellent acoustics. 

You can buy tickets here or download and print the attached form and mail it to UUFD, 435 San Juan Drive, Durango, CO 81301 with a check payable to UUFD.  Include “Recital Series” in the memo line.


The Program

copyright Judith Reynolds 2010
Judith Reynolds 2010

The fifteenth season will begin on Sept. 30 with Marilyn Mangold Garst, piano.  Marilyn was a faculty member for 25 years at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she taught piano, harpsichord and keyboard ensembles, served as Keyboard Studies Coordinator and performed in recitals.  After moving to Durango, she served for eleven years as Music Director for UUFD and currently continues as a pianist for the Fellowship and Artistic Director of the Recital Series.  Marilyn’s recital will feature piano music from three centuries written by composers from six different countries.  The program will open with Sonata No. 2 in F Major by W.A. Mozart (1756-1791).  This sonata was published in 1775 and includes three movements (fast-slow-fast), typical of the Classical era.  Next she will perform Rhapsody in G Minor by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), representing his rich and dark pianistic style.  The first half will conclude with two preludes by Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943).  The first one in D major is a richly scored melodious Andante while the second one in C minor is a passionate Allegro in perpetual motion.  The second half will open with two light-hearted Dances in the Canebrakes by Florence Price (1887-1953).  Price was the first female African-American composer, pianist and organist to reach international recognition.  Next will be Lotusland by Cyril Scott (1879-1970), an atmospheric and sonorous piece.  The program will close with Danzas Argentinas by Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983).  The three dances (fast-slow-fast) are paintings in sound.  The second one is especially notable for its beautiful lyricism in spite of many dissonant chords, and the last dance is a percussive rhythmic tour-de-force in perpetual motion

The second recital will feature Rochelle Mann, flute, and Anne Eisfeller, harp, on Nov. 11.  Both are prominent performers in the Four Corners area and beyond, including the San Juan Symphony and Music in the Mountains.  Mann previously was Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at Fort Lewis College.  Eisfeller’s positions have included principal harpist of the New Mexico Philharmonic and Santa Fe Symphony and teaching harp at the University of New Mexico.  Their program will include works by Claude Debussy, Jacques Ibert and Béla Bartók.

Wesley Dunnagan, tenor, accompanied by Marilyn at the piano, will appear on March 3, 2023.  Wesley has performed across the U.S.A. and abroad.  He is Coordinator of Voice Studies at Fort Lewis College where he also leads the Baroque Ensemble and teaches courses.  The program will include songs by seven composers–Reynaldo Hahn, Robert Schumann, Henri Duparc, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Benjamin Britten and Lori Laitman.

The final recital on May 5, 2023, will feature Richard Silvers, violin, and Holly Quist, piano.  Silvers is Visiting Instructor of Music Theory and Upper Strings at Fort Lewis College and has performed throughout the U.S.A. and in Europe.  Quist is an Adjunct Instructor at the college.  The program includes Sonata in G Major by W.A. Mozart, Cadenza for Solo Violin by Krzysztof Penderecki, Sonata in A Major by Johannes Brahms and a world premiere by Ari Fisher who will attend the recital.  Silvers describes Fisher as a brilliant composer influenced primarily by late 19th and 20th-century Russian composers along with John Williams.