Gary Barnett is presently a music faculty member at the University of California, Riverside and holds a Ph.D. in historical musicology from the University of California, Riverside, as well as a DMA in piano performance from the University of Kansas. His research and performance interests are centered in keyboard musicology from diverse eras and styles including Iberian-Latin folk-inspired and con- temporary genres, electronic-piano music of living composers, and studies in piano music of Central Europe with an emphasis on living composers of Romania. Publications and presentations at recent sym- posiums and conferences include the 2015 Enescu Symposium and Festival and the 2015 Festival of New Music (SIMN) at the National Conservatory of Music, Bucharest.

Dr. Barnett has performed as a keyboard soloist and collaborative artist throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe, with recent performances throughout Southern California and Central Europe, including The Culver Center for the Arts, Riverside, Califor- nia, and the George Enescu Palace in Bucharest, Romania. Previous master classes and lecture-recitals include the Royal Academy of Music in London, Saint George’s School in Rome, the Nanyang Academy of Arts in Singapore, and the National Conservatory of Music in Quito, Ecuador. Following a guest appearance with the Pasadena Symphony, the Los Angeles Times described Barnett as a “thoughtful and meditative piano soloist.” The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah, USA) has capitalized Barnett’s talent as being “a virtuoso of the highest order.”

Program Notes All of the composers on this recital have had some connection to Vienna, Austria, some currently residing in the city. Roberto Mafud pursued his piano studies in Vienna and later emigrated to the Yuca- tan, Mexico. The program begins with his Wien Erinnerungen which he sketched in Vienna last year (arranged by Jeff Manookian), and is dedicated to Gary Barnett. Catalin Creţu is the director of the elec- tronic music division of the National Conservatory in Bucharest. His sonata employs a variety of post-tonal techniques in a virtuosic dis- play in two contrasting movements. Dana Probst currently resides in Vienna, though she received much of their musical training in Bucha- rest. Auftakt evokes times and peoples in the mountain ranges of Ro- mania, requiring the pianist to literally call out certain names and places. Liviu Marinescu resides in Los Angeles, California, and is the chair of music composition at California State University, Northridge. Bent employs indeterminate aspects of angular, leggiero filigree that is sharply contrasted with explosive clusters throughout the entire range of the keyboard.

Ernst Krenek is a prominent Austrian composer who wrote a prolific amount of piano music. His seventh sonata is a one-movement work which was written towards the end of his life. Although it is shorter in comparison to his other sonatas, it is a monument in expressing the malleability of sonata form. Doina and Diana Rotaru are related (mother and daughter) and both teach at the National Conservatory of Music in Bucharest. The Prélude evokes the ambiance of a musical style of Debussy, but nevertheless retains the indelible stamp of Diana’s brilliant hues. Doina’s Samaya explores an enormous palette of color through varied techniques, many of which require the pianist to scrape low bass strings inside the piano. Szilagyi currently resides in Vienna. Much of her music may be said to be spectrally influenced. Translucid elicits a powerful aura and spatiality through dramatic ex- tended sonorities in the extreme ranges of the piano in a number of extended techniques and is dedicated to her piano teacher Ana Pitis.

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