The Department of Music is pleased to present “Five Brits & a Witt: Music from the British Isles and America,” performed by the Leibundguth-Witt Duo in Jussi Björling Recital Hall, Sunday, March 21 at 3:30 p.m. This performance by Gustavus flute instructor Barbara Leibundguth and Carl Witt, pianist and composer, is free and open to the public.
The Leibundguth-Witt Duo began working together in 1994. Leibundguth commissioned Witt’s Duo for Flute and Piano in 1996, and their CD, Visionary Duos, was released in 2001 on the Albany label. In 2002 they won a $25,000 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Artists. Leibundguth was a member of the Minnesota Orchestra for twenty years, and in addition to her faculty position at Gustavus. She recently performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Detroit Symphony. She is a native of Chicago and graduated from Northwestern University. Witt earned his DMA from the Eastman School of Music and as a composer has received awards and grants from ASCAP, the Jerome Foundation, and the American Composers’ Forum. He recorded a solo piano CD of original, improvised music entitled Quiet Mind, and was co-artistic director of the contemporary music group Zeitgeist.
For this program, the duo will present a number of works by British composers including George F. Handel, Ian Clarke, Gerald Finzi, William Mathias and Edwin York Bowen. One composition by Carl Witt, Blessing, is the only work on the program by an American composer.
Sunday’s concert will be followed by a reception for the musicians in the recital hall lobby. The concert is free and open to the public.