Two-part UGA faculty-student performance honors Spanish composer Granados

Enrique Granados’ 150th birthday brings faculty and students at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music together to honor the Spanish composer’s work in a special two-part performance event in Ramsey Concert Hall on Monday, April 17.

Over a dozen graduate students will perform Granados pieces first at 6 p.m., and at 8 p.m., a collection of Hodgson School faculty members will take the stage to continue the tribute to Granados.

Granados was a highly influential composer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose style is often described as uniquely Spanish. A joyous, celebratory tone is common to much of Granados’ catalogue—perhaps appropriate as the School approaches the semester’s end—and one source of that tone is actually the work of another famed Spanish artist.

“Some of the song texts refer to the time of Francisco Goya, one of Spain's greatest painters, and to his favorite subject in his early period: the easy-going life of the Majos and Majas of Madrid, a fairly comfortable working class/middle class, who are always shown in various party states,” said Daniel Bolshoy, lecturer of guitar.

Hodgson School faculty members Liza Stepanova and Stephanie Tingler organized the two-part event and their colleagues Michael Heald, Kristin Jutras, Maggie Snyder, David Starkweather and Martha Thomas are among the performers in the event’s second half, alongside two of the newest faculty members at the School of Music. 

Bolshoy and Elizabeth Knight, lecturer of voice, will share the stage with their colleagues for the first time.

“I am very much looking forward to sharing the stage with my great UGA colleagues and to be collaborating with Liz Knight,” said Bolshoy.

Bolshoy and Knight will perform from a set of Granados songs titled “Tonadillas en Estillo Antiguo,” or “Songs in an Old Style.” The songs were written for voice and piano, but Bolsoy and Knight’s rendition will come from a guitar transcription—a common practice with many of Granados’ works.

“The piano writing often evokes guitar figures, so the transcription feels quite natural,” said Knight. “I’ve sung some of these pieces with piano before, so I’m excited to explore the new colors and expressive nuances that emerge with guitar.”

The programs for faculty and student performances both showcase the variety of Granados’ work: a piano quintet, piano and violin sonatas, selections from an opera and piano suite and more.

Both performances are presented admission-free, and those unable to attend can watch the concert live on the Hodgson School’s website: music.uga.edu/streaming.

The UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music sponsors more than 350 performances each year. To view the performance calendar, subscribe to the weekly email concert listing, and to learn more about the School of Music, go to music.uga.edu.