Mozart Monday piano concerts drawing crowds

HOW TO GO

WHAT: Mozart Mondays with pianist Bruce Murray

WHEN: Concerts begin at 6 p.m. Mondays and continue through July 27

WHERE: Oxford Community Arts Center ballroom, 10 S. College Ave.

COST: Free, but donations are accepted at the door.

MORE INFO: Call 513-524-8506, email info@oxarts.org, or visit www.oxarts.org

Mozart Mondays with pianist Bruce Murray at the Oxford Community Arts Center is proving to be a popular summer evening draw. The series is now halfway through its six-week run but audiences are enjoying the opportunity for the hour-long musical interlude from their summer schedules.

Murray, who is professor and chair of the Department of Music at Miami University, is performing the 18 solo sonatas of Mozart, in addition to some of the composer’s other pieces over the course of six recitals, which began June 22.

“The piano sonatas of Mozart fit nicely into six shows. It’s a complete show in an hour with no intermission,” Murray said.

He proposed the idea to arts center director Caroline Croswell and Andy Lynn, program coordinator for the arts center, set it up with him.

He has performed more than 1,000 concerts and enjoys playing in this local six-week summer series.

“Caroline and Andy have been really nice. I pitched it and was really, really generous of them,” he said. “I am really pleased with the crowd. I thought 20 would be a good crowd, but we draw a hundred. There have been wonderful audiences week after week. It’s music in the summer. There’s not a lot of that.”

Following last Monday’s concert, a man came up to Murray and thanked him for the performance, telling him he heard about the series through friends and drove 25 minutes to come to the concert that night.

Each concert is followed by a brief reception, but Murray said he is often not able to stay for very long because the effort of playing Mozart is draining.

“I find playing a general concert with different composers is easier. This is intense music. It takes a lot of work. It is very hard to play Mozart. There are a zillion notes and every note is important. It is challenging,” Murray said.

Watching from the hallway as Murray finished his concert last Monday, Lynn shook his head in awe.

“It’s not so much that he does it without sheet music, but he has his eyes closed, like he’s reading it in his head,” Lynn said.

Along with each performance, Murray provides commentary on Mozart’s work, discussing its most fascinating aspects, as well as its relevance to and lasting influence on today’s culture.

Programs remaining in the coming three weeks are:

Murray has been chair of Miami’s music department for three years, coming here from a position as dean and artistic administrator of the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, N.C. He holds degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University and Yale University, where he earned both his M.M. and Ph.D. From the time he left Yale until he moved to Brevard as full-time administrator, Murray served on the music faculty of the University of Alabama, teaching piano and allied courses. He also served in a variety of administrative roles at Alabama and was Director of the School of Music from 1998 until 2003.

He is also a Steinway Artist, one of 1,700 in the world on the roster of the famed piano producers.

“It takes some work,” he said.