Guest clarinetist Eric Mandat, joined by pianist Jeanne Golan, will give a free recital, "American Music Spectrum," at Ithaca College on Wednesday, February 22. Featuring Mandat's own works for clarinet and piano as well as compositions by Aaron Copland, Dana Wilson, Leslie Bassett, and Eric Moe, the performance will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Hockett Family Recital Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.
A professor of clarinet and distinguished scholar at Southern Illinois University, Mandat was given that institution's Outstanding Scholar Award in 1999. Golan is a professor of piano at Nassau Community College, where she was the first to receive the Chancellor's Award for Artistry and Scholarship. Both performers have a strong commitment to new music and have recorded many new solo and chamber works.
From performing the Mozart Concerto on basset clarinet with the Latvian National Chamber Orchestra in Riga during the Mozart bicentennial celebration in 1991 to presenting a recital of his own compositions as an invited guest artist during the 1994 ClarinetFest in Chicago to performing the title role in the 1996 world premiere of John Eaton's opera, "Don Quixote," Mandat takes versatility to a new level. Touring extensively as a soloist and a chamber musician, he presents lectures and recitals that feature new American clarinet music and extended performance techniques. Mandat also performs regularly as part of the Chicago Symphony's new highly acclaimed contemporary chamber music series, MusicNow.
Also an accomplished composer, Mandat writes for clarinet solo and in small chamber ensembles. His works utilize multiphonics and microtones within a musical framework influenced largely by jazz and traditional music of non-Western cultures. A reviewer in "The Clarinet," commenting on Mandat's "Folk Songs," wrote, "A composition of this caliber will most likely enter the performance repertoire as the representative piece of the decade."
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/2006021612101580