Series: Rising Stars, Classical
Dates: Friday, December 5 and Friday, May 1
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Venue: Jonsson Performance Hall

Ticket Prices: free

UT Dallas students perform with professional musicians under the direction of renowned composer/conductor and University Professor of Music, Robert Xavier Rodríguez.

Friday, May 1 - A Celebration of French Music

UT Dallas students, faculty and guest artists perform vocal and instrumental chamber music by Couperin, Gounod, Franck, Faure, Satie, Milhaud, Boulanger & Messiaen.

December 5 - Mozart & Friends
Music of W. A. Mozart, Johannes Brahms & Robert Schumann.
Featuring Michael McVay, piano; Oliver Schlaffer, cello (guest artist); and UT Dallas Students.

UTD's Musica Nova Ensemble performs music written for small ensembles, plus multi-media and theater works, of all periods. Instrumentalists, singers, composers, actors, dancers and video artists from UTD’s Chamber Music Ensemble class join UTD faculty and other professional musicians and members of the community. Musica Nova guest artists have included members of the Dallas Symphony and Dallas Opera Orchestra and singers from the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera. Music performed on past Musica Nova concerts has ranged from Medieval and Renaissance dances and motets to standard repertoire to experimental mixed-media works written for and/or developed by the ensemble. Concerts have included an evening of jigs, an evening of tangos, an evening of improvisation, French cabaret and mariachi songs, chamber opera, video art, ballet and a fully staged commedia dell'arte pantomime. Graduate or undergraduate students interested in auditioning, please call 972-883-2766 or 972-238-8703.

Robert Xavier Rodríguez
The music of Robert Xavier Rodríguez is regularly performed in American, Latin American, and European musical centers, with more than 2,000 professional operatic and orchestral performances in recent seasons. Rodríguez has served as composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the San Antonio Symphony, and the Dallas Symphony. He currently is Professor of Aesthetic Studies at UTD and is active as a guest lecturer and conductor. His music is published by G. Schirmer and has been recorded on the Newport, Crystal, Orion, Urtext, Albany, and CRI (1999 Grammy nomination) labels. A full biography is available at: http://www.robertxavierrodriguez.com/

Michael McVay earned a B.M. in piano performance from the University of Missouri/Kansas City Conservatory, an Associate Degree from the Royal College of Music and an M.M. in music theory from the University of North Texas. Previous posts include lecturer at LaSalle/SIA College of the Arts in Singapore, Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Austin College, visiting faculty member in music theory at UNT, and staff accompanist at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. McVay is a staff accompanist at UTD and will teach a music theory class in the Fall Semester. He performs regularly in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. His CD, Michael McVay and Friends, can be heard on Dallas radio station KAAM.