The Arpeggione Duo of guitarist Dr. Christopher Kachian and cellist Dr. Thomas Schönberg will perform a 7 p.m. concert Tuesday, April 16, in the Great Hall, located on the second floor of O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
Free and open to the public, the concert is part of Library Week events at the university. Refreshments will be served.
Thomas Schönberg and Christopher Kachian.
The duo will perform the "French Suite No. 6 in E" by J.S. Bach, "Chinese Suite" arranged by Schönberg, "Duo for Guitar and Cello" by W. A. Mozart and jazz duets by Joe Pass and Herb Ellis.
The evening’s program is the same one the duo will perform on a concert tour throughout China later this year.
This marks the first time the library’s Great Hall, noted for its stained-glass windows and vaulted ceiling, will be used for a concert. Kachian did a sound check there recently and said the acoustics are excellent.
Schönberg and Kachian, who are educators as well as performers, formed the Arpeggione Duo after meeting at the Guitar Festival of Sollentuna, Sweden, in 2004. They tour annually and have recorded three albums. Samples can be heard here.
Schönberg is a native of Sweden and was accepted to the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm at age 13. He received his doctorate at the University of Hartford, Conn., and is dean of the Lidingo School of Music in Sweden. He performs throughout Europe, Asia and the United States on a Giovanni Grancino cello built in 1704.
The Arpeggione Duo.
Kachian, whose doctorate is from the University of Minnesota, heads the Guitar Studies Program at St. Thomas and in 2011 was inducted into the renowned Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity. A champion of new music, he has commissioned and premiered more than 30 works for guitar. He has given more than 500 performances in Japan, China, Africa, Cuba, Costa Rica, Peru and throughout Europe and North America.
Kachian is a founding member of the Society for the Affectation of Baroque Music and also plays the blues harmonica.
The duo’s name reflects the musicians’ blend of guitar and cello. Invented in 1823 by Viennese guitar maker Johann Stauffer, the arpeggione has six strings and frets like a guitar, but it is similar in size to a cello and played with a bow. Only one major work was written for the instrument, the "Sonata in A Minor for Arpeggione and Piano" by Franz Schubert.
For more information call (651) 962-5014. More details about the program can be found on the library's website here.
