Unique Concert Features Works of Bolcom

The American Double, a violin-piano ensemble, will perform a unique concert featuring all of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom’s works for violin and piano. “The Bolcom Project” will be performed as part of the Kerrytown Concert House Classical Series, Sunday, Oct. 22, at 4 p.m. at the concert house, 415 North Fourth Avenue in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Philip Ficsor, Westmont professor of violin, and pianist Constantine Finehouse make up The American Double which has been featured in concert series across the United States and Europe.

Bolcom, professor of music composition at the University of Michigan, is best known for his arrangement of William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” which won three Grammy Awards.

“Because of the eclecticism and the melting pot quality of American culture,” says Ficsor, “it’s considered to be a quintessentially American piece.”

The American Double will play four sonatas and five other works as well as a solo suite for violin.

Bolcom will be at the concert, introducing each piece and talking about the background of each composition.

“We know Bach, Beethoven and Mozart because they’ve been around for 300 years,” Ficsor says. “Bolcom’s one of five of the most important composers in America right now.

“We’ve been playing these pieces for five years. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The American Double will be releasing a CD of Bolcom’s works in February.

Tickets to the Kerrytown Concert House performance range in price from $5 to $25 and can be purchased at www.kerrytownconcerthouse.com or by calling (734) 769-2999.