Volume 59, Issue 9  - October 16, 2006

Urbis to toast Mozart in concert Saturday
By Marie Melendez
Staff Writer

Richard Urbis

At 8 p.m. Saturday, Associate Professor of Fine Arts Richard Urbis will be featured in a piano concert in the SET-B Lecture Hall.

Urbis will perform two of his own works, “Ballade for the Left Hand” and “Czech-American Fantasy,” plus pieces by Chopin, Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Mozart.

Most of the concert will consist of Mozart.

“I’m playing so much of Mozart because this is the 250th anniversary of his death,” Urbis said, “… and I’m paying some homage.”

The concert has two themes.

“The first theme deals with how the composers wrote when they were young, then how their [talent] developed over time,” Urbis said. “For example, the very first Mozart composition I’ll be playing will be a minuet written when he was 6 years old. Then, I follow that with a ‘D minor Fantasy’ written when he was [an] adult.”

The second theme is more of how the composers were influenced in their style of music. For instance, Mozart influenced Chopin. Chopin, in turn, influenced Scriabin and Rachmaninov.

Urbis enjoys tickling the ivories with classical and jazz music and is always looking for ways to enhance the sound of the piano.

“What I’m doing right now as a composer is exploring these new sounds of the keyboard. … I’m working on a piece dealing with making a piano do things that it’s not supposed to do, like make a note bend and also to expand the use of harmonics,” he said.

Urbis said he is researching harmonics and how to use it. He believes the study of music is also a science because Mozart wasn’t born with his enormous talent. But, rather, that talent was honed.

He is a world-class pianist, having competed in numerous national and international competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow), the Chopin competition (Warsaw), the Beethoven Competition (Vienna), and was a finalist in the International New York Chopin Association Competition.

“I think I’m really onto something a little new,” Urbis said. “So, I’ll tell you that some of the compositions that I’ll be bringing in next year are going to be a little daring.”

Concert tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and children, and $3 for students with a valid ID.