Pianist and Violinist Duo to Perform at UW March 18

“Solace in Times of War” is the title of English music for a violin and piano concert by the critically acclaimed Harley-Fadial Duo at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 18, in the University of Wyoming’s Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The duo, featuring eminent artist and English pianist Andrew Harley, and the UW Department of Music’s John Fadial, a professor of violin, will present a program of early 20th century music by English composers Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Frank Bridge, Edward Elgar, Gerald Finzi, John Ireland and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Harley will return to campus for a one-day residency with UW Department of Music students Monday, April 1, teaching workshops for vocalists and collaborative piano students. He then will return to UW for a third time this spring from May 18-22 to record his recital program with Fadial.

The Harley-Fadial Duo’s CD “Sonatas for Violin and Piano,” released in 2019 and recorded during a previous residency at UW, was lauded by Fanfare Magazine as a “remarkable recording … effortless in technique, eloquent in expression … The Brahms violin sonatas could hardly be bettered to display what collaboration means.”

Harley has an internationally recognized performing and teaching career. Specializing in instrumental chamber music and song literature, he has been heard in live broadcasts on national radio and television and on numerous recordings.

He has held positions at the University of California-Los Angeles; Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California; University of California-Santa Barbara; University of North Carolina-Greensboro; and The Juilliard School. Harley currently is director of the Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music Degree Program at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

Harley has taught in summer programs such as the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he served as associate director of the Collaborative Piano Program and the International Institute for Young Musicians as director of chamber music. He has given master classes at the New England Conservatory; Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England; Indiana University; and Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany.

Harley has collaborated with many international and national artists; has performed with several renowned musicians; and has performed in many known venues around the world.

At age 11, Fadial performed for President Gerald Ford and has since appeared around the globe as critically acclaimed chamber musician, soloist and pedagogue. He served as an Artistic Ambassador for the U.S. State Department and as concertmaster of the North Carolina Opera; Colorado Festival’s ProMusica Colorado; Menuhin Festival Orchestra of Saumur in France; Germany’s Heidelberg Schloss-Spielel; and Greensboro, N.C., Symphony Orchestra.

Fadial has given master classes at Arizona State University; University of South Carolina; Interlochen Arts Academy; French National Conservatory of Nancy; Beifan University; and Conservatory of Oviedo. He serves on the artist faculty of the Eastern Music Festival as assistant concertmaster; violinist of the Eastern Chamber players; and is director of the Eastern Music Festival’s violin internship program. He has held professorships at West Virginia University and the University of North Carolina.

He has performed in various festivals and venues around the world and has performed with well-known artists. Fadial has received critical acclaim for live National Public Radio performances of the great symphonic concertmaster solos, such as Brahms, Dvorak, Mahler, Puccini, Shostakovich, Strauss and  Rimsky-Korsakov.

Fadial was a Grammy Award semifinalist for best Chamber Music Performance in 2007 and has performed as a solo artist on numerous recordings with artists such as Harley; the Stanislas Sextet, of which he is a founding member; and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.