UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Donald Maurice, professor of viola at the Te Koki New Zealand School of Music, will visit the Penn State School of Music on Aug. 27-28 to present two lectures and a viola masterclass.
Sponsored by the School of Music's string area, Maurice will present "Vocal Fingering for Strings" on Thursday, Aug. 27 from 3-4 p.m. in 122 Music Building II. This will be followed at 5 p.m. by a lecture titled "Bartók Research into Violin Duos/Sources/Viola Transcriptions" in 115 Music Building I, sponsored by the Penn State Society of Music Theory and Musicology.
On Friday, Aug. 28, Maurice will present a viola masterclass at 10 a.m. in 122 Music Building II, sponsored by the Penn State Viola Society.
All events are free and open to the public.
Donald Maurice has performed for more than four decades as a viola soloist, chamber musician and conductor, and he has premiered many New Zealand works. He has presented at more than a dozen International Viola Congresses in Australasia, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, and he has performed in New Zealand’s embassies and diplomatic missions in Berlin, New York, Ottawa, Warsaw and Washington, D.C.
His extensive solo and chamber music discography includes works by Bartók, Beethoven, Elmsly, Enescu, Hill, Lilburn, Pigovat, Platt, Ritchie and Strauss. With the Dominion String Quartet, he recorded Alfred Hill’s complete string quartets for Naxos. The 2013 release of Béla Bartók’s "44 Duos," transcribed for two violas, on the Tantara label, and first recordings of works by Enescu, Lilburn and Pigovat, continue to earn international accolades.
In addition to articles on a range of topics, Maurice has authored books on composers Alfred Hill and Béla Bartók. His book titled "Bartók's Viola Concerto — The Remarkable Story of His Swansong" (Oxford University Press) has become recognized as an authoritative text. In addition, he has published viola transcriptions of music by Enescu, Proumbescu and Lilburn.