Thomas Wood and Brian Dykstra to Present Tribute to Composer Sergei Prokofiev

Free public performance to be held Saturday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center

WOOSTER, Ohio — The music of famed Russian composer and pianist Sergei Prokofiev will be presented by Thomas Wood, violinist, and Brian Dykstra, pianist, at an All-Prokofiev recital on Saturday, Oct. 23, at The College of Wooster. The performance, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center (525 E. University St.).

The program will feature both Prokofiev violin concertos as well as transcriptions by Jascha Heifetz of the March from Prokofiev's opera “Love for Three Oranges” and Masks from “Romeo and Juliet.” The concert is the culmination of the work undertaken by Wood during his recent sabbatical leave.

Wood, Professor of Music and Chair of the department, has been a member of Wooster’s faculty since 1991, where he teaches violin, viola, string methods, and chamber music. He has also served as concertmaster of the Wooster Symphony Orchestra. Distinguished as the first violinist to be awarded the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wood also holds a B.M. and M.M. from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His teachers include Gerardo Ribeiro, Norman Paulu, and Jens Ellerman. He has performed throughout the United States and in Spain, and has also held positions with the New Pittsburgh Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the Pittsburgh Oratorio Society, Bach Aria Group of Pittsburgh, Erie Philharmonic, and Opera Barga (Italy). Wood’s work as a scholar of the music of Max Bruch received international recognition with the publication by N. Simrock Publishers (London-Hamburg) of his critical edition of the G Minor Violin Concerto (with a new reduction for violin and piano) and first edition of the String Octet.

Dykstra, the Neille O. and Gertrude M. Rowe Professor of Music Emeritus and a faculty member at Wooster for 38 years, is currently an adjunct instructor of piano at the College. He holds a B.S. from the Juilliard School of Music and an M.Mus. and D.M.A. from the Eastman School of Music. He also attended the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg (1967-68) as a Fulbright Scholar. As a piano soloist and collaborative pianist, Dykstra has given annual classical recitals featuring works by many great composers from the 18th century to the present. As a chamber musician, he has participated in a number of concerts, including several in the Purcell Room in London and Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City. He is also internationally acclaimed for his ragtime compositions and performances. He has made several ragtime recordings, and many of his compositions are featured on the compact disc “Brian Dykstra: Concert Rags” (Centaur). He is currently planning to record more rags — mainly his own, but also classic rags.

Additional information about the recital is available by phone (330-263-2419) or e-mail.