Ithaca College

Violinist Susan Waterbury will perform with pianist Charis Dimaras in a faculty recital at Ithaca College on Sunday, October 2. Beginning at 4:00 p.m. in the Hockett Family Recital Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music, the performance will highlight connections between current anti-Iraq-war sentiment and the music of Shostakovich and Bloch.

"The Shostakovich work we've chosen is very beautiful, depressing, uplifting, and anti-war all at once," Waterbury says. "This program is very intense, but we chose it to highlight the current political climate. Both Dmitri Shostakovich and Ernest Bloch struggled with and fought against oppression and war, and that is reflected in Shostakovich's 'Sonata' and Bloch's 'Poeme Mystique.' "

Waterbury teaches violin and chamber music and performs with the resident Ariadne String Quartet. A founding member of the Cavani String Quartet, she has performed with that ensemble for 11 years. The group has garnered numerous honors, including winning the Banff International, Fischoff, Coleman, Carmel, Cleveland, and Naumburg competitions. Waterbury has also performed with the Contemporary Chamber Players, Ensemble X, and Present Music.

Dimaras is an assistant professor of piano and coordinator of collaborative studies at Ithaca College. As a soloist, he has frequently performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. Formerly on the faculty of the University of Miami summer program in Salzburg, he was also a teaching fellow at the Royal College of Music and Ethnikon National Conservatory in Athens.

The Ithaca College School of Music offers some 300 free concerts each academic year. More information on these performances is available by calling (607) 274-3717 or visiting www.ithaca.edu/concerts.