Contact: Michele Abba

805-756-2406; [email protected]

SAN LUIS OBISPO — John Salmon, a music professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Cal Poly Music Department faculty member Janet Joichi will give a free piano recital at 11:10 a.m. Thursday, March 7, in Room 218 in the Davidson Music Center (No. 45) on campus.

“Bach, Brubeck and Beyond” will feature piano duet versions of works by J.S. Bach and Dave Brubeck, one of the most active and popular jazz musicians in the world until his death in 2012, plus some of Salmon’s own compositions.

The program will open with Bach’s Prelude in C Major from “The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I,” plus three of Bach’s “Inventions,” once with a Baroque arrangement, then again with a jazz arrangement, all by Salmon. The program also features “Take Five” and Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a La Turk” along with other well-known tunes by Brubeck and three original compositions for duo pianos by Salmon. 

Salmon has distinguished himself on four continents as a classical and jazz artist. His performances have been broadcast on many U.S. radio stations, including National Public Radio, WNYC in New York, WFMT in Chicago and KUSC in Los Angeles; and on the national radio stations of more than a dozen other countries.

He has recorded four compact discs of Brubeck’s classical piano music on the Phoenix, Naxos and Albany labels. Brubeck, who earned the National Endowment for the Arts’ Masters Fellowship in 1999 — the highest honor that the nation bestows on a jazz artist, dedicated two compositions to Salmon: “The Salmon Strikes” and “Bach Again.” Salmon’s CD of piano pieces by Nikolai Kapustin is also on the Naxos label, and a CD of his own jazz compositions, “Salmon Is a Jumpin’,” was released by Albany Records.

He is also active as a guest performer for festivals and music conferences, as a guest lecturer and author.

Joichi teaches applied piano at Cal Poly and brings a diverse background in piano performance, music theory and cognition, and psychology into her teaching. She holds a doctorate in music from Northwestern University in music theory and cognition, a master’s degree in piano performance from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Northwestern University where she received the piano program honor award. Joichi has performed in venues throughout Chicago including Preston Bradley Hall and Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, and as a guest performer at a variety of colleges.

The recital, free and open to the public, is sponsored by Cal Poly’s Music Department and the Tevis Fund for Visiting Artists. For more information, call the Music Department at 805-756-2406 or visit its calendar website.