Denison University's Department of Music will host Austrian violinist Wolfgang David and U.S. pianist David Gompper in a concert at 8 p.m. on Wednesday (Sept. 19) in Burke Recital Hall. Denison Associate Professor Ching-chu Hu composed "Passions" especially for two highly skilled solo musicians who will perform three additional works when they stop in. They are on a tour taking them from Boston to Chicago. The program will include music by Hu, Gompper, Johann Sebastian Bach and Luke Dahn.

Wolfgang Dávid and David Gompper

Both as a recitalist and as a guest soloist, David has made a name for himself on the international stage. He has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Virtuosi, and the Vienna Radio Symphony. Admitted to the University for Music in Vienna at the age of 8, David studied there for many years. Highlights of his career have included concerts at the Great Assembly Hall of the United Nations in New York in the presence of Secretary General Kofi Annan and a concert in Bangkok, given for the Queen of Thailand. David performs on a violin built in 1715 by Carlo Bergonzi. He has recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and has two albums with Gompper.

Gompper has lived and worked around the world as a professional pianist, conductor and composer. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London. After teaching in Nigeria, he earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan, taught at the University of Texas-Arlington, and, since 1991, has been professor of composition and director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. A Russia Fulbright Scholar in 2002-2003, Gompper taught, performed and conducted at the Moscow Conservatory.

They will perform "(Ex)changing (Ex)tract," a work written specifically for them by Luke Dahn and derived from the pianist's "Star of the County Down." The violin and piano trade primary roles at different times in the piece. He earned his doctorate in composition from the University of Iowa in 2006. He teaches at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.

Ching-chu Hu composed "Passions" in 2001 and incorporates Asian elements within a western-based developmental structure. He composed music idiomatic for the er-hu (Chinese fiddle) and sheng (Chinese aerophone) and combined attributes for Wolfgang's lines. He studied at Yale and Freiburg Musichochschule in Germany, the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan. Active as a pianist and composer, recent honors include being composer-in-residence at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. He joined Denison's faculty in 2000 and teaches composition.

Bach's Chaconne from the Partita in D minor is one of five dance-based movements. The Chaconne is the final movement and is now usually considered a separate work and one of the most important in the repertoire for solo violin.

"Echoes" by Gompper is a three-movement work performed without break. It serves as the basis for the composer's Violin Concerto, which will be recorded by The Slovac Radio Orchestra this fall. Well-known throughout the United States and Europe, Gompper's works have premiered at Carnegie Hall, the Institute of Music and Acoustics in Karlsruhe, Germany and London's Wigmore Hall.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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