Bassoonist Jackson Bryce to Perform Faculty Recital Focused on Romantic Music

A short faculty recital by Carleton College professor and bassoonist Jackson Bryce will take place on Thursday, February 4 at 8 p.m. in the Carleton Concert Hall. His colleague, John Jensen, will accompany on piano. With Valentine’s Day approaching, Bryce and Jensen have selected an apt program of romantic songs.  They will also a debut a new version of Professor Emeritus Phillip Rhodes's Phoenix Resurgens. The recital will feature a wonderful range of exciting and romantic songs, perfect for the season.  This event is free and open to the public.

This recital will revolve around romances, in the sense of music telling stories. It will include a Concert Piece by Gabriel Pierné; the Romance by Sir Edward Elgar; Phoenix Resurgens, which is based on a poem by Firmianus Lactantius (A.D. c. 250 - c. 325) about the legendary phoenix; the infamous Sonata Abassoonata by P.D.Q. Bach; and finally one movement of the Sonata by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Legendary Twin Cities chamber and jazz pianist John Jensen will join accompany Jackson on the piano, adding improvisations on the Pierné and the Rhodes. Jackson laughingly assures that, even though his “most trusted artistic advisors” have strongly discouraged jim from ever performing the P.D.Q. Bach in public again, “fervent popular demand must also be considered.” This has convinced him to flout any sage and tasteful advice.

Bryce is the Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor of Classical Languages and the Liberal Arts, and a senior lecturer in bassoon at Carleton, where he has been teaching for 38 years. Jensen is a staff pianist at St. Olaf College and director of music at First Universalist Church in Minneapolis, where he is a well-known recitalist, chamber musician, and jazz pianist, regularly appearing at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul and the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis.

The Carleton College Concert Hall is located at First Street and Winona Street in Northfield. For more information or disability accommodations, contact the music department at (507) 222-4475.