The School of Music at Marshall University will host a free recital presented by clarinetist Robert Heath at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, in Smith Recital Hall on Marshall’s Huntington campus.
Heath will be accompanied by Marshall music faculty members Dr. Johan Botes, piano, and Dr. Wendell Dobbs, flute, as well as the former director of the School of Music, oboist Dr. Richard Kravchak. Featured on the program will be works by Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Debussy and Jun’ichi Shirafuji. The program will conclude with Simon Milton’s Fantasy on Themes from Bizet’s Carmen.
Heath, an alumnus of Marshall’s Colleges of Liberal Arts and Fine Arts, said he has seen music profoundly change the world. As a sailor stationed with the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet Band in Yokosuka, Japan, for four years, he performed in 13 countries in Southeast Asia, from tropical islands to bustling metropolises. While in Japan, he co-founded and co-conducted the bi-national project Ongaku no Tomodachi (Friends in Music), which emphasized the collaborative nature of music in spite of the language barrier, and performed two benefit clarinet recitals. Upon returning to West Virginia after leaving the Navy, he has founded Project: 音 Sound 음, which brings musicians from Japan, China, Korea and the United States together to perform in rural parts of those countries.
Contact the Marshall University School of Music at 304-696-3117 or visit www.marshall.edu/music for more information on this and other School of Music events.