Contact: Michele Abba
805-756-2406; mabba@calpoly.edu
 

SAN LUIS OBISPO — Guest violinist Sarah Saviet, who performs extensively as a soloist and ensemble player of contemporary classical music in Europe, will present a master class and recital Thursday, May 16, in Room 218 of the Davidson Music Center (Building No. 45).

Saviet will coach students active in the Music Department’s string chamber music program at 11:10 a.m. and then will give a solo recital at 5:30 p.m.

For the recital, she will perform new music for solo violin, including her own compositions as well as works by avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis, Swedish composer Lisa Streich, andTimothy McCormack of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

The Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago recently described Saviet as one of “contemporary music’s most inventive and searching performers, (who) explores shifting limits: between interpreter and author, idea and body, virtuosity and failure, periphery and interior.”

Based in Berlin and on a 10-day trek through California featuring master classes and solo concerts, Saviet is dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician; as a member of the Saviet/Houston Duo, which is known for its challenging, relevant and wide-ranging programs; and with Berlin’s Ensemble Mosaik, which performs versatile and experimental contemporary music.

Saviet’s debut solo modern classical album “Spun” (released last August by Coviello Contemporary) was recently nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award for new music. Her recording on HCR/NMC records of Liza Lim’s 2015 violin concerto “Speak, Be Silent” with the Riot Ensemble, which includes some of the top European soloists in new music, was selected as one of The New Yorker’s best recordings of 2019.

Recent performances include duo concerts at Ultraschall and AFEKT festivals in Europe, as a soloist with Austrian chamber orchestra Klangforum Wien as part of MaerzMusik in the Berliner Philharmonie, and the premiere of Rebecca Saunders and Enno Poppe’s duo “taste” at Witten Festival 2022.

Originally from Washington, D.C., Saviet has held visiting artist positions in the composition departments of Berlin University of the Arts, England’s Huddersfield University, at Goldsmiths, University London with London-based Riot Ensemble and at Harvard University with ELISION Ensemble.

She has given workshops on contemporary violin technique at Berlin University of the Arts, Manhattan School of Music and Germany’s Academy of Music in Darmstadt, and held artist residencies at Aldeburgh Music, an international performance center about 90 miles northeast of London, with composers Lawrence Dunn, Jack Sheen and artist Rowland Hill.

The presentations are free and open to the public and are sponsored by the Music Department and Instructionally Related Activities program. For more information, visit the Music Department’s calendar website or call 805-756-2406.