Concert honours Marjan Mozetich’s career

Concert honours Marjan Mozetich’s career

Special event at the Isabel will feature works by the retiring faculty member who is one of the most performed composers in Canadian classical music.

January 17, 2018

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After 27 years as a continuing adjunct lecturer in theory and composition at Queen’s, Marjan Mozetich is retiring.

Marjan Mozetich
A special concert at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, the second in the Faculty Concert Series, will recognize the work of Marjan Mozetich. (University Communications)

Long a valued resource and respected educator at the Dan School of Drama and Music, Mozetich is also one of the most performed composers in Canadian classical music and a Juno Award winner.

In recognition of all he has given his colleagues and students, a special concert of his music is being held at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts on Sunday, Jan. 21.  The event is the second in the 2017-18 Faculty Artist Series.

While his music has been performed countless times by musicians around the world, the significance of the upcoming concert isn’t lost on Mozetich.

“It’s quite an honour to have a whole concert dedicated to my music,” he says. “Normally you don’t get that kind of thing. The school didn’t have to do a whole event just on my work. It’s a tremendous honour.”

Faculty performers presenting some of his most expressive chamber music and songs include: violinists Gisèle Dalbec-Szczesniak and Karma Tomm; cellist Wolf Tormann; mezzo-soprano Colleen Renihan; and pianists Julia Brook, Adrienne Shannon and Cynthia Tormann. A string orchestra, conducted by Gordon Craig, will perform Mazetich’s Postcards from the Sky, and his Bassoon Concerto, featuring Katie Legere as soloist.

For his colleagues the event will be bittersweet – an opportunity to perform some of his most recognized pieces but with the knowledge that he will soon be moving on.

“The great thing about being a composer is that your music can go on to be performed long after you hang-up the teaching gloves. Thankfully Marjan has a large body of music that he continues to add to so I am sure his pieces will be programmed on many future concerts,” says John Burge, Professor of Theory and Composition at the Dan School. “What will be missed though, is the gentle guidance and nurturing that he has provided to our senior composition students each year. Earlier this fall I was copied on an email from one of his former students who had just received her Doctorate in Composition from the University of British Columbia and she stressed how much his teaching has inspired her through all her subsequent studies. We have been lucky to have him on faculty.”

While he is retiring from the university Mozetich will continue to compose. He currently has commissions for the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Kingston Symphony Orchestra.

The concert starts at 2:30 pm.

This concert is now SOLD OUT. Please note that the next Faculty Artist Series concert is the Isabel String Quartet on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 2:30 pm.

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